About 10 days ago, TikTok invited a group of reporters to visit the company's office

in LA.

It was part of a corporate charm offensive, an attempt to push back on the various TikTok

bands that have popped up all over the country, from state universities to Congress.

The implicit message was, hey, come see what we're up to.

We are totally not a national security threat.

So I went there, you know, kind of met some executives and then we walked over about 10

minutes to this transparency and accountability center nearby.

Louise Metzakis, who covers tech and China for semaphore, was one of the journalists

on the tour.

It was sort of like an app museum almost.

You could sort of walk around.

They had, you know, sort of the big type of, you know, interactive touch screens that

you might see in children's museum.

They had some computer exhibits where you could sort of practice being a content moderator.

Honestly, I thought it was pretty cool, but I think one of the sort of gigantic elephants

in the room is that it was very obvious to me that everyone there was very careful not

to mention China.

Which seemed both expected and darkly amusing since China and fear of China was driving

this whole dog and pony show anyway.

TikTok, as you surely know, is the social network of the moment and probably most young people's

first destination for entertainment online.

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