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Business Wars

TikTok vs the U.S.A. | Trending Upwards | 1

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.613.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 2018, Chinese tech company ByteDance launched TikTok in the United States, determined to make the app one of the top entertainment platforms in the country. And by spring 2020, ByteDance achieved its goal, thanks, in part, to a global pandemic that sees people spending more time on their phones. But while TikTok faces competition from other social media sites, its greatest threat is the U.S. government. Lawmakers worry the e Chinese-owned app is a serious national security risk and a growing faction is determined to take it down. 

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Wonderry Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of Business Wars, TikTok versus the USA, early and ad-free right now.

0:07.6

Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts.

0:14.4

It's February 1st, 2023 in Washington, D.C., inside the Situation Room of the White House.

0:24.9

United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appears its satellite footage showing a small,

0:29.7

white dot flying over the state of Montana.

0:32.9

It's a Chinese spy balloon equipped with surveillance equipment, and it can be programmed to fly over specific targets.

0:41.4

Relations between the U.S. and China are already tense, and now China is brazenly violating U.S. airspace.

0:49.5

Austin wants to know where the balloon is headed.

0:52.2

An army official grimaces and says that if it stays on its current trajectory,

0:56.0

the balloon will fly directly over Malmstrom Air Force Base.

1:00.0

There's a murmur around the room.

1:03.0

Malmstrom is one of three sites in the U.S. that house the country's

1:06.0

intercontinental ballistic missiles.

1:09.0

These missiles can travel several thousand miles and are designed

1:12.9

to deliver nuclear warheads. Intelligence about how these weapons are secured is not information

1:19.3

the United States wants to get into the hands of a hostile nation. Austin asks how much time the

1:25.8

Air Force would need to shoot the balloon down.

1:28.3

An Air Force General says they can have F-22 fighter jets airborne in a matter of minutes,

1:34.3

but shooting down the balloon comes with serious risks.

1:38.3

The balloon is 200 feet tall, the size of three school buses.

1:42.3

Shooting it down would create a debris field with a seven-mile radius,

1:46.5

at a minimum. A lot of civilians could be hurt. Austin nods. Nevertheless, they need to be prepared

...

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