The TikTok Dance
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2020
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In August, Trump signed executive orders that labeled both TikTok and another Chinese-owned app, WeChat, as national security threats. Unless they could broker a deal that would transfer majority control of the services over to American tech partners, both apps would be banned from the United States. The scramble that followed involved multiple competing companies and interests and raised the already heightened tensions between two feuding countries.
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED staff writer Louise Matsakis joins us to talk about TikTok, WeChat, and how this fight might shape diplomatic relations between the US and China for years to come.
Show Notes:
Read Louise’s coverage of the TikTok controversies here and here.
Recommendations:
Louise recommends the book The Overstory by Richard Powers. Lauren recommends the show Schitt’s Creek. Mike recommends SF Urban Hiker’s Stairway Project and also just going on a hike yourself.
Louise Matsakis can be found on Twitter @lmatsakis. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our executive producer is Alex Kapelman (@alexkapelman). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Lauren. |
| 0:00.7 | Mike. |
| 0:01.4 | Lauren, are you on TikTok? I am on TikTok. Unsurprisingly, it was my young niece who got me into TikTok. I don't really post to it, though, and I think my account's private. Are you on TikTok? That's a hard no, as we all know. But I guess it's a good thing that you actually downloaded the app onto your phone because its fate hangs in the balance, which is what we are going to be talking about today. |
| 0:22.8 | Exciting. |
| 0:30.3 | Hi, everyone. Welcome to Gadget Lab. I am Michael Collory, a senior editor at Wired. And I am joined remotely by my co-host, Wired senior writer Lauren Good. |
| 0:39.6 | I think you mean aspiring TikTok star Lauren Good. |
| 0:43.7 | Send her all your spawncon requests. |
| 0:46.3 | We are also joined this week by Wired staff writer Louise Matt Sackis. |
| 0:50.7 | Louise, welcome back to the show. |
| 0:52.7 | Hey, thanks for having me again. |
| 0:54.3 | Of course. Today we are talking about welcome back to the show. Hey, thanks for having me again. Of course. |
| 0:55.6 | Today we are talking about TikTok. |
| 0:57.6 | Since the app is owned by the Chinese company BiteDance, there has been some concern that |
| 1:01.6 | it collects data about American users and shares it with Chinese intelligence services. |
| 1:06.5 | So in August, President Trump signed an executive order labeling both TikTok and another |
| 1:11.5 | Chinese-owned app, WeChat, national security threats, unless they could broker a deal |
| 1:15.9 | that would transfer control over to American tech partners. |
| 1:19.7 | And if they couldn't, both apps would be banned in the United States. |
| 1:23.4 | That deal has not exactly worked out. |
| 1:26.1 | We'll get into the issues about data collection and what China actually wants later in the show. |
| 1:30.6 | But first, let's talk about the apps themselves. |
| 1:32.7 | And let's start with TikTok. |
... |
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