Survival or destruction, this is the question for the future of social media giant TikTok in the United States.

The fate of apps controlled by the Chinese Communist Party is one of a handful of issues that appear to divide Americans along our most basic ideological divides, roughly speaking, for and against Donald Trump. Trump.

That's a good sign that there's a legitimate competing interest in killing the app and letting it thrive in the United States. Those who support short-video platforms see themselves as defenders of free speech; those who oppose them see themselves as defenders of national security. Both may make sense.

TikTok CEO sat front row at inauguration at Trump's invitation

In order to make thoughtful and honest decisions about TikTok, it is important to fully understand and acknowledge how much damage China’s espionage and propaganda operations have already caused.

The fact that Chinese owner ByteDance refuses to sell TikTok goes some way to confirming that it has always been a Chinese Communist Party operation. It wasn't started by a Chinese entrepreneur who wanted to make money, or who would readily accept a $50 billion offer -- especially when it was either that or bankrupt in the United States.

No, TikTok’s true value to the CCP has always been an information attack on the United States designed to steal our private data, including that of millions of children, and promote anti-American ideology. Remember the “Osama bin Laden isn’t that bad” TikTok craze?

Information is a serious national security issue. According to the Department of Defense, the United States' international power levers are described by the DIME paradigm as diplomatic, information, military, and economic.

In three of these areas, the United States dominates. But because of our First Amendment and the liberal nature of our society, we are always at a disadvantage when facing authoritarian foreign enemies when it comes to using information as a weapon.

This is not a two-way social media street with China. As Elon Musk, owner of rival platform X, noted this week, “The current situation of allowing TikTok to operate in the U.S. but not allowing ”

No one should hold their breath waiting for China to relax its internal social media censorship, but Musk's point is well understood. This is asymmetric information warfare.

All of this is why a ban on TikTok would have passed with a bipartisan majority if ByteDance continued to refuse to divest, and why Trump got on board at the time. Now, with TikTok choosing to shut down in the U.S. on Sunday, the rubber has bottomed out.

Of course, there are plenty of Americans who use TikTok in completely non-nefarious ways to run their businesses, keep up hobbies, or just for mindless entertainment, and it's understandable that they don't want TikTok to go away.

Trump, for his part, has come to believe TikTok played a significant role in ensuring he won the election. There's not a lot of hard evidence to support this, but there are people in Trump's inner circle, such as Kellyanne Conway, who has lobbied TikTok in Congress.

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It would be great if Trump could reach a deal to save TikTok in the United States by eliminating the national security threat it poses. That would be a win-win. But while these competing interests are legitimate, they are not equal, and our country's defense must clearly come first.

Trump, for his part, seems to understand this, posting on Truth Social on Sunday that he wanted "50% U.S. ownership in a joint venture. By doing this, we can save TikTok and take control of it." in good hands and allows the United States to have 50% ownership in a joint venture. "Without U.S. approval, there would be no TikTok." "

Deal or no deal, whether TikTok survives or not, you have to salute Communist China for one of the most effective information operations ever conducted against the United States. Countless bytes of data are stolen, and millions of hours of propaganda are poured into the eyes and ears of our children.

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It took our government years to understand what TikTok was really doing, even longer to take action, and now, even after it took decisive action, we can't seem to unplug the listening devices. One possible solution is to provide China with more than $50 billion to resolve its troubles.

Trump wanted 90 days to do a deal, but no one did it better. But after that, either the CCP will withdraw from the TikTok business, or TikTok must withdraw from the United States... There is really no third option.

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