Chinese ownership as a security threat is currently in between reality and conspiracy realms but the US govt meddling as a threat is a proven reality worldwide.
China is currently providing weapons for Russia to wage large-scale war in Europe, while supporting a dictatorship in North Korea that regularly launches nuclear-capable misiles in my general direction.
For extra fun, this doesn’t even determine if I live in Greenland or Canada - let alone adding ”Abducting a foreign head of state to lay claim to natural resources”, which could make me Venezuelan!
North Korea is a fire down the block; America is a grease fire in my kitchen, and I hope you'll forgive me for prioritizing the immediate threat
Since controlling these platforms is probably the best ROI for swinging public opinion, I'm sure it's a matter of time before they get seized (one way or another) and redistributed to reliable political allies.
>Chinese ownership as a security threat is currently in between reality and conspiracy realms but the US govt meddling as a threat is a proven reality worldwide.
There is nothing stopping any country from doing the same to US companies' local operations five years ago, today, or next year. The difference is that the US is not China. Your comment assumes that a US company is as dangerous as a Chinese company. As felipeerias said, China is (among other things) actively backing Russia in Ukraine.
US law did not require TikTok's divestiture to a US owner. If TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, the US government wouldn't have intervened in the first place.
Conversely, if TikTok were a Canadian, British, French, German, Korean, Japanese, or Taiwanese company, American would not have to fear a hostile government silently gathering data on American users, or a company repeatedly shown to be lying about using its app to do so.