I find the Tiktok ban more of a geopolitics thing, less of a national security reponse.

You cannot just make assertions about something, and without substantiating them _adequately_, say 'they just told a lie, so everything that they said are lies'.

This is rooted in an anti-China rhetoric and only undermines the US position since for more than a decade many western companies' complaints against Chinese partners were about forced technology transfers.

Edit: correct wording and grammar

Whether you trust a company that has been caught lying under oath is not the same as whether a company should be allowed to operate in a country.

>Even a code and security audit would leave a lot of room for things like AI driven feeds conducting propaganda campaigns. It’s not just code or infrastructure as a point in time but also data

Perhaps so, but that does not mean that those reviews should not be conducted before taking a step as big as forcing a sale. US govt could have given Tiktok US an ultimatum to go through one before coming to this conclusion.

>In the end it comes down to trust.

Yes, absolutely. The US does not trust Tiktok because it is Chinese owned, or is it because of privacy concerns, or is it both? And in any case, would determining the extent of control not help it understand the level of exposure? Grilling people at senate or select committee hearings can be revealing and is politically exciting but there was and still is more to be done to safeguard interests of people already on the platform.