The evidence that TikTok is a mouthpiece for China, according to NPR's account of the Commerce Department memo (I still need to read it myself):
1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members.
2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such.
3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank.
The first two are normal for big Chinese companies, though I suppose one could say that just means all Chinese companies are propaganda outlets. The third one...yes, if authorities go after a company in any country you will generally see leadership either challenge the decision or apologize, this isn't even unique to authoritarian countries. In other words this sounds like generic natsec scare tactics where you could insert the name of any Chinese corporation rather than anything interesting.
1. Bytedance employs 130 Party members.
2. The party members had a rally with Communist salutes and pledges and such.
3. Bytedance's CEO once apologized over an app that the authorities shut down because, as far as I can tell, the memes were too dank.
The first two are normal for big Chinese companies, though I suppose one could say that just means all Chinese companies are propaganda outlets. The third one...yes, if authorities go after a company in any country you will generally see leadership either challenge the decision or apologize, this isn't even unique to authoritarian countries. In other words this sounds like generic natsec scare tactics where you could insert the name of any Chinese corporation rather than anything interesting.