China’s 2021 Data Security Law allows the government to conduct “national security audits” of corporations’ data, giving Beijing access to any corporate data generated in China or by Chinese firms operating abroad. The CCP regime is shaping global data regulations both by establishing national standards that govern Chinese firms operating abroad and through its influence in multilateral standard-setting bodies such as the International Organization for Standardization. The extraterritorial framing of national-security oversight allows Beijing to access data gathered by tech platforms anywhere. The 2020 Hong Kong National Security Law set the stage for Beijing’s efforts to criminalize national-security violations (including those related to user data) and to hold all parties liable for criminal and civil transgressions-even those occurring outside China. In response, Beijing cracked down harder. In 2019, under Beijing’s direction, the Hong Kong government proposed a bill that would have allowed Hongkongers to be extradited and tried in China, sparking massive protests. Under Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Beijing has been broadening its definition of national security and enacting far-reaching data regulations, thereby establishing a basis in Chinese law for accessing incredible amounts of data about people all over the world. For example, TikTok claims not to have the capability to track users’ locations, yet its terms of service requires users to consent to exactly that. TikTok has denied these allegations, but it hasn’t disproved them. Recent reports have raised concerns that Chinese tech firms can track the location of specific citizens, that these firms are not transparent about who has access to their data (including, for example, Chinese government agencies), and that the influence of foreign governments over digital communications platforms like TikTok, where 30 percent of people under the age of thirty get their news, can influence everything from perceptions about international events to domestic elections. As data traverses borders without explicit consent, the privacy of individuals, organizations, and even government bodies is at risk, posing a potential threat to national security. From Australia and Japan to India and Pakistan to the United States, governments have been grappling with the expanding scope of China’s digital regulations, which have set the stage for Beijing’s global collection of data. The rapid global expansion of Chinese tech firms such as ByteDance has created a regulatory conundrum for countries worldwide. But as those users post and watch short videos, behind the scenes TikTok is meticulously collecting data on them, tracking their preferences and online activities. Owned by the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, TikTok surpassed one-billion active global users in 2021. Since launching in 2016, the video-sharing app TikTok has become one of the world’s most popular social-media platforms. Not only can such platforms track people’s preferences and whereabouts, but they give the Chinese government control over a powerful tool for shaping people’s worldview. The popular Chinese-owned app is enabling Beijing to collect data on people nearly everywhere.
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