December 19, 2025 • 51 mins
What is a conspiracy theory, and why have they become so common? In the finale, we continue the story of how TikTok was pushed to the brink of banishment in America. Along the way, we see how one US Senator went on a mission to take down the Chinese-owned app – and in the process, exposed the true nature of a conspiracy theory.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
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Speaker 1 (00:50):
Previously on Red Pilled America.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Big congratulations to the alphag Team.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
AI, developed by a Western company, had humiliated China at
their own game in their homeland. This could not stand,
so began the AI arms race. China declared that by
twenty thirty it would become the world's leader in artificial intelligence.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
What concerns critics are the broad powers the law will
give China as it pursues so called cyber sovereignty. Companies
in key industries will need to open up their computer
systems for security examinations.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
The new law could be used by the CCP to
access the personal data of Americans.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I'm Patrick Currelci and.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The media marks stories about everyday Americans at the Globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. We're at the finale of our series
(02:21):
of episodes entitled TikTok Conspiracy. If you haven't heard parts
one and two, stop and go back and listen from
the beginning. We're looking for the answer to the questions
what is the conspiracy theory and why have they become
so common by telling the story of how TikTok was
pushed to the brink of banishment in America. So to
(02:43):
pick up where we left off in twenty seventeen, the
China based Byte Dance wanted to go global with its
wildly popular short video app Doyenne, But with China's strict
content restrictions. Byte Dance couldn't just open Doyen to the world.
That would have brought Western videos into the communist country.
Byte Dance's co founders Ung Yieming had to think outside
(03:05):
the box, and he came up with a solution. He
decided to create a separate app for the global market
by cloning Doyene. He called the new app TikTok. To
hit the ground running in America, by Dance purchased the
lip syncing social media app Musically, which had an estimated
sixty million active users in the US. Yming merged Musically's
users into TikTok and officially launched the app in the
(03:28):
United States in twenty eighteen. Almost immediately, TikTok exploded into popularity.
By September twenty eighteen, it surpassed Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and
Snapchat for the most downloads in America. Big name celebrities
flocked to TikTok Here's my Major's Moodie recipe first Alman Milk.
(03:49):
But the short video app did something unexpected. It created
a new kind of celebrity. Users of the app began
racking up massive followings names like Lisa and Lina Loren
Gray and Zach King, complete unknowns in her Hollywood became
TikTok famous on the social media app, drawing tens of
millions of followers. Bite Dance had a hit on their hands,
(04:11):
and that's when the Knives came out.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
First. In February twenty nineteen, the Federal Trade Commission went
after TikTok for illegally collecting personal information from children after
parent complaints. The FTC found that many TikTokers, as they'd
come to be known, were under the age of thirteen.
TikTok was publishing their personal data without parental permission, which
(04:41):
was a violation of US law. The FTC eventually hit
TikTok with a record five point seven million dollar fine. Then,
in early April twenty nineteen, TikTok was briefly blocked in
India when an Indian court accused the app of allegedly
encouraging pornography and displaying quote inappropriate content. The ban was
(05:01):
lifted later that month, but TikTok's problems were just getting started.
In September twenty nineteen, The Guardian revealed that TikTok directed
moderators to censor videos of banned subjects in China. The
report showed how Byteedance was exporting Chinese censorship to the
(05:21):
world via their app, and it ignited the ire of
the free speech advocates. But even as the list of
TikTok's foes grew, the app continued to explode in popularity.
As twenty nineteen came to a close, TikTok had acquired
a stunning five hundred million active global users. It was
ranked one of the most installed apps in forty countries
(05:45):
and continued to outpace Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Facebook and downloads.
A serious war was being waged against Silicon Valley's social
media supremacy, and it inevitably caught the eye of the
King of social networks, Mark Zuckerberg.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Now China is building its own Internet, focused on very
different values, and it's now exporting their vision of the
Internet to other countries.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
In an October twenty nineteen speech at Georgetown University, Zuckerberg
began ringing the alarm on the growing social media power
of China.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Now, until recently, the Internet almost every country outside of
China has been defined by American platforms with strong free
expression values, but there's no guarantee that these values will
win out. A decade ago, almost all of the major
Internet platforms were American. Today six of the top ten
are Chinese, and we're beginning to see this in social
(06:38):
media too. While our services like WhatsApp are used by
protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections,
on TikTok, the Chinese app growing quickly around the world,
mentions of these same protests are censored even here in
the US. Is that the Internet that we want?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Zuckerberg explained that China was keeping Facebook's apps out of
its country while companies like TikTok were rapidly expanding spreading
China's values to the world.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
If another nation's platform set the rules, our discourse can
be defined by a completely different set of values.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
TikTok had a new foe in Silicon Valley, and it
was no coincidence. At Zuckerberg delivered his speech at Georgetown,
the university is in the heart of Washington.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
D C.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
His message quickly caught the attention of lawmakers, and New
York Senator Chuck Schumer was the first to grab the microphone.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
A growing chorus of senators are calling for an immediate investigation,
warning the app owned by a Chinese tech company could
pose a national security threat.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
There are one hundred and ten million Americans who have
information with TikTok, and the Chinese government could be grabbing
every one of them.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
The question was whether China could use TikTok as a
spying device on Americans, and it was a fair question.
After Google's AI algorithm mastered the ancient Chinese strategic game
of Go, the Red Dragon believed it had fallen behind
to the West in artificial intelligence. An AI arms race
was ignited on national security grounds. China quickly enacted laws
(08:15):
that required Chinese owned companies to provide access to their
data to the Chinese Communist Party or CCP. Bye Dance,
the China based owner of TikTok, was not immune to
this law, and the head of the company displayed a
willingness to bend the knee to the CCP if needed.
About sixteen months before Zuckerberg's speech, in April twenty eighteen,
(08:37):
China orchestrated a power move against byte Dance. It ordered
the internet startup to shut down its popular joke sharing app,
bite Dance's first big hit. China also demanded a halt
to new downloads of the news app Totiau, which was
bite Dance's bread and butter. The CCP also reportedly ordered
(08:57):
the Chinese version of TikTok doin to suspend its live
streaming function. Dance was at the time valued at twenty
billion dollars. It was already a behemoth, yet it was
just a tiny little ant under the boot of the CCP.
The message sent to Jean Yiming was simple, if you
don't comply, you will be crushed. So Yiming went into action.
(09:23):
He promised the CCP to almost double Byteedance's content moderators
from a staff of six thousand to ten thousand, all
dedicated to censoring band content. He also committed to creating
a blacklist of band users while developing advanced censorship technology.
In his lengthy apology to the CCP, Yiming.
Speaker 8 (09:44):
Stated, we didn't realize that technology has to be guided
by the core values of socialism, so it can be
used to spread positive energy, meet the requirements of the times,
and respect public order and good customs.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Shortly after issuing the statement, Yiming's news app Totiao began
highlighting glowing stories of China's communist leader gingping at the
top of the app. The groveling appeared to work. The
restrictions were lifted on all but the joke sharing app. Then,
within two weeks of this public apology, Yiming was invited
to deliver the keynote speech at a tech meeting hosted
(10:18):
by China's Internet regulators, the topic byte Dance's plan for
global expansion. It's fair to say that Yiming was given
direct approval from the CCP to expand his AI powered
apps globally. By threatening to cut off Byteedance's access to
the country's one point four billion users, China forced one
(10:41):
of the country's biggest tech companies to conform to its
communist values. As November twenty nineteen arrived, byte Dance reorganized
its management structure, making the head of TikTok report directly
to Yi Ming, the man that had bent the knee
to the CCP. With Mark Zuckerberg ringing the alarm in Washington,
DC that TikTok may be a communist trojan horse, lawmakers
(11:05):
were legitimately concerned, and they went into action. Republican Senators
Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton joined Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer
urging the US intelligence community to assess the national security
risk of TikTok. They argued that it could be used
to spy on US citizens or as a platform for
foreign influence campaigns. By the following week, it was clear
(11:29):
that the senator's warning made an impact.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
Well, all the kids are doing it, and I guess
it's all the rigs among celebrities.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
But America now launching a national security.
Speaker 11 (11:37):
Review of TikTok. The Chinese owned video sharing app under
scrutiny for its data collection practices and whether it follows
Chinese censorship rules.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
But it was Republican Senator Josh Holly that would become
the loudest voice on this issue. Holly called on TikTok
to testify before Congress. The company ignored him, so the
US senator made sure to shame the Chinese short video
app at a November twenty nineteen hearing. In his opening remarks.
Speaker 12 (12:05):
Parents, if you don't know what TikTok is, you should.
It's a Chinese own social media platform so popular among
teens that Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly spooked for Facebook. The
fear is lost social media market share for the rest
of US, The fear somewhat different. A company compromised by
the Chinese Communist Party knows where your children are, knows
(12:27):
what they look like, with their voices, sound like, with
their watching, and what they share with each other. TikTok
claims they don't store American user data in China. That's nice,
but all it takes is one knock on the door
of their parent company based in China from a Communist
Party official for that data to be transferred to the
Chinese government's hands whenever they needed.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Holly shared a letter from TikTok. Officials from the app
claimed they did not take direction from China.
Speaker 12 (12:56):
But that's not what former employees of TikTok say today.
The Washington Post is reporting that TikTok's Chinese parent company
imposed strict rules on what could appear on the app,
in keeping with China's restrictive view of acceptable speech. Former
employee said company officials based in Beijing had the final
call on whether flagged videos were approved. The former employees
(13:20):
said their attempts to persuade Chinese teams not to block
or penalize certain videos were routinely ignored out of caution
about the Chinese government's restrictions. One former Byte Dance manager
that's TikTok's parent company, Byte Dance, said this, They want
to be a global company, TikTok and numbers wise, they've
had that success, but the purse is still in China.
(13:42):
The money always comes from there and the decisions all
come from there. That's sure a different story than the
one TikTok has told this committee in this letter, and
that's a problem. They should have been here today, but
after this letter to this committee, they must now appear
under oath to tell the truth about their company at
(14:03):
its ambitions and what they're doing with our data.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Holly spelled out the dangers of the Chinese owned app.
Speaker 12 (14:09):
The threat isn't just a children's privacy, it's a threat
to our national security. We don't know what China can
do with this kind of social data in aggregate what
it tells China about our society. They can see who
we talk to, what we talk about, where we congregate
what we capture on video. Not all of TikTok's users
are just kids. Some work in government or for the military.
(14:30):
Others are celebrities or work for major American companies and
positions of influence. What does it mean for China to
have a window into such users' social lives? Why would
we leave that window open?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
The national security issue began to slowly seep into the
consciousness of the American public, but it was an unexpected
international event that would not only bring more scrutiny on TikTok,
but exponentially amplify its popularity as well.
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yourself and those you love and taste the difference. Welcome
back to Red Pilled America. So in late twenty nineteen,
US Senator Josh Holly exposed TikTok's national security threat, but
it was an unexpected international event that would not only
bring more scrutiny on TikTok, but exponentially amplify its popularity
(16:25):
as well.
Speaker 13 (16:29):
China has identified the cause of the mysterious pneumonia outbreak
in Wuhan City, and it's from the same family that
caused the deadly SARS epidemic seventeen years ago. It's a
new type of coronavirus.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
In early January twenty twenty, news slowly began to leak
out that a novel coronavirus was devastating the city of Wuhan.
China and had the potential to break out globally. By
the end of the month, the virus made its way
to US shores.
Speaker 14 (16:56):
A SARS like virus, which has infected hundreds in China,
has now reached the United States.
Speaker 15 (17:03):
Tonight, US cases of coronavirus more than doubling, with two
new cases in southern California and one in Maricopa County, Arizona,
the CDC conforming all five patients in the US had
traveled to Ruhan.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It wasn't long before the COVID nineteen outbreak turned into
a national panic, and US governors began taking unprecedented steps.
Governors like California's Gavin Newsom led the way in school shutdowns.
Speaker 16 (17:28):
Ninety eight point eight percent of our schools have closed down.
Let me be candid, I would plan and assume that
it's unlikely that many of these schools, few if any,
will open before the summer break.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
By the end of March twenty twenty, roughly seventy million
K through twelve and college students were sent home with
no time frame for their return to class. Over the
coming weeks, the kids got restless. They began downloading TikTok
in record numbers. In June twenty twenty, TikTok was once
again the most downloaded app of the year, racking up
(18:03):
eight hundred million active users globally. The same country that
was responsible for the conditions that sent kids home was
also in control of the app consuming their lives. It
was an ironic twist, and President Trump made sure the
point wasn't lost.
Speaker 17 (18:19):
Some important developments in our war against the Chinese virus?
Speaker 15 (18:23):
Why do you keep calling this the Chinese virus?
Speaker 6 (18:26):
There are reports of.
Speaker 18 (18:27):
Dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans in this country.
Speaker 19 (18:32):
Why do you keep using this because fromist.
Speaker 17 (18:35):
It's not racist at all, No, not at all. It
comes from China.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Tensions rose between China and the US, and Chinese officials
eventually responded with threats.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
China, rather than trying to calm fears, now is ratcheting
up threats. This recent article came out in China state
run newspaper. It's called shin Wah. It's basically the mouthpiece
for the Communist Party. It claimed China might impose pharmaceutical
export controls that had plunged America into quote the mighty
sea of the Corona virus.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
This was the state of US China relations in June
twenty twenty, and TikTok was about to get caught in
the crossfire. In mid June, the Trump twenty twenty campaign
planned its first rally since the start of COVID shutdowns.
President Trump announced that a million people requested tickets. The
rally appeared to be set for an unprecedented turnout. The
(19:34):
only problem was the Trump campaign had been pranked by TikTokers.
Around the time the rally was announced, a Democrat Party
volunteer came up with an idea to humiliate President Trump.
She posted a video over idea on TikTok.
Speaker 18 (19:49):
If you've been paying attention to the news, you know
that Donald Trump was planning on holding his first political
rally post quarantine on June nineteenth, unto Oklahoma. Somebody on
another TikTok post commented that he was offering two free
tickets on his campaign website to to this rally. So
I want investigated it. It's two free tickets per cell
phone number, because when you register, you have to give
them your cell phone number. They send you a code,
(20:10):
You put the code in and your tickets are reserved
for you. So I recommend all of those of us
that want to see this nineteen thousand seat auditorium barely
filled or completely empty, go reserve tickets now and leave
them standing there alone on the stage. What do you say?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well? The video went viral and the liberals on TikTok
began bombarding the Trump campaign with requests for tickets to
an event they were never going to attend. As the
ticket request soared, President Trump posted on his Twitter account.
Speaker 17 (20:36):
Almost one million people request tickets for the Saturday night
rally and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
But when the event arrived, it was clear that Trump
had been pranked.
Speaker 20 (20:44):
Donald Trump's re election rally fizzles in an arena he
promised would be packed.
Speaker 17 (20:50):
We've never had an empty seat, and we certainly won't
in Oklahoma.
Speaker 20 (20:54):
Not one empty seat, but thousands. Was TikTok trolling? The
reason no one showed up.
Speaker 14 (21:00):
Well, that arena is not full, the outside empty. They
couldn't even get nineteen thousand people there, and they had
bragged that they were going to be a million. There
is a lot of Twitter traffic that says he was
played by young people and K pop fans who ordered
tickets with no intention of going.
Speaker 20 (21:18):
People were mass ordering tickets.
Speaker 14 (21:19):
They played them, They got played by teenagers.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The ordeal was a huge embarrassment. TikTok had gained a
new enemy, and it wasn't long until Trump began floating
an idea directed at the app that platformed the prank.
Speaker 17 (21:33):
We're looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok.
Speaker 21 (21:36):
We may be.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Doing some other things.
Speaker 17 (21:38):
There are a couple of options, but we are looking
at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
And the President insists that he does have the authority
to ban the app.
Speaker 20 (21:49):
He signal that he could take action as.
Speaker 18 (21:51):
Early as today, but so far no word yet from
the White House Tonight.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
By August twenty twenty, it became official.
Speaker 22 (22:04):
Dal Jones is not reporting the President will sign an
order demanding Byteedance to divest TikTok.
Speaker 17 (22:08):
It can't be controlled for security reasons by China. Too big,
too invasive. And here's the deal, whether it's Microsoft or
somebody else, a big company, a secure company, very very
American company by it, Di said a date of around
September fifteenth, at which point it's going to be out
of business in the United States. But if somebody then
(22:31):
whether it's Microsoft or somebody else buys it, that'll be interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
But in a series of legal moves, Byte Dance was
able to buy some time. A US federal judge blocked
Trump's executive order that would have removed TikTok from app stores.
Another judge altered a ban on US transactions with the app.
With the twenty twenty election results, throwing the TikTok divestment
into a limbo. Senator Josh Holly again took his argument
(22:59):
against TikTok to the airwaves.
Speaker 12 (23:01):
Executives from TikTok they will never come and take the
oath and testify in public. That I think is unusual,
and I think it begs the question, what is it they.
Speaker 23 (23:11):
Have to hide?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
And it was clear at the time that China had
been upping its efforts to spy on America. Earlier in
the year, four Chinese military hackers were charged with stealing
the credit report records of one hundred and forty five
million Americans. The communist country had also been caught hacking
records from the second largest American health insurer. The threat
(23:33):
to national security was real, but the turmoil did nothing
to slow down the growth of TikTok. With its US
banishment in Limbo, the app's popularity had only grown worldwide.
It had been downloaded a staggering two point five billion
times and was in more than one hundred and fifty countries.
But with the concerns over the app mounting, in February
(23:54):
twenty twenty one, America's new President, Joe Biden, shelved the
plan to force the sale of the app. The pressure
on ByteDance began to subside, so much so in May
twenty twenty one, a genius entrepreneur that co founded by
Dance took the opportunity to step down.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
We'll talking about Jong e Ming, who is the CEO.
He's going to be handing the reins to Rubo Lian.
Jongi Ming, by the way, he founded the company in
twenty twelve. He says he wants to focus on long
term strategy. That's where his eyes are set now.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Jung Ji Ming thought he'd dodged a bullet, But what
the Chinese Ai wizard couldn't have known was that his
enemies were about to get their second wind.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
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Welcome back to red Pilled America. So by mid twenty
twenty one, TikTok's enemy list had swelled. Its Chinese owned
(25:05):
parent company had drawn the ire of child advocacy groups,
privacy activists, free speech advocates, Silicon Valley executives, national security hawks,
and even the President of the United States that every
attack on the app had failed because Americans were hooked
on the dopamine hit that the app provided. TikTok had
(25:25):
even become a valuable monetization tool, providing American creators with
the source of income. When President Biden entered the White House,
the pressure on TikTok subsided that by the end of
his first year in office, pressure mounted again when a
new byt Dance board member was revealed in in October
twenty twenty one Senate hearing, a TikTok official was confronted
(25:48):
on the identity of the new board member by Republican
Senator Marshall Blackburn.
Speaker 24 (25:52):
Earlier this year, the Chinese Communist Party acquired an ownership
state and a seat on the board of Bike Dance.
Theil Kanese Communist Party ask you for US user data,
what is to stop you from providing it? Since they
have a seat on the board of Byte Dance and
they have a financial stake in the company.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I'm senator, that's not accurate.
Speaker 21 (26:16):
One.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
They do not have a steak in TikTok at all.
Speaker 24 (26:19):
Yes to do it happened in August.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
I'm senator, that's not act.
Speaker 24 (26:22):
It is Byte Dance. We can clarify that for the record.
But the record is that the Chinese Communist Party acquired
a steak in Byte Dance in August and they now
have a seat on the board.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
The battle to band TikTok was reignited, and in mid
twenty twenty two, the website BuzzFeed dropped a bombshell that
fueled the fight for Yes.
Speaker 25 (26:45):
TikTok has maintained that data from users from America is
stored only in America and any concerns of a threat
to data privacy are unfounded, but now lead to audio
from itty TikTok meeting suggests that non public data was
repeatedly accessed by employees in China well the video platform
spared and company by Dancer's host. This despite TikTok sworn
(27:07):
testimony in a Senate heading in twenty twenty one that
only the US based security team decides who gets access
to the data.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
The journalist for the Bezzfeed report, Emily Baker White, revealed
that she'd received leaked audio from eighty internal TikTok meetings,
and the audio stoked fears that TikTok was a trojan
horse carrying Chinese spyware.
Speaker 25 (27:27):
Employees can be heard seeing phrases like everything is seen
in China and also refer to Beijing based engineers as
the master admin who have access to everything.
Speaker 26 (27:37):
Imagine what they're doing with the data, the information that
people are willingly putting online, all their private stuff. This
is not an American based social media company. This is
going directly to the Communist Party of China.
Speaker 27 (27:51):
The terms of service is nuts. And it's one thing
to like say, oh, we're going to target ads in
your direction. We're kind of use to that or whatever,
like with Google enloy, I don't mind if they'd send
ads my way, but that what they're doing is nuts.
They have access to your audio. That means they have
access to your microphone. They're listening to you talk.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
By September twenty twenty two, Senator Josh Hawley finally got
his chance to grill TikTok when the company sent its
chief operating officer, Vanessa Pappas to testify before Congress.
Speaker 12 (28:21):
Are there members of the Chinese Communist Party employed by
TikTok and Byte Dance?
Speaker 7 (28:25):
Yes or no.
Speaker 28 (28:26):
I wouldn't be able to tell you the political affiliation
of any individual. What I can tell you is how
much we're better.
Speaker 12 (28:32):
No, A membership in the Communist Chinese Party is not
exactly like membership in the Democrat Party. So I'm looking
for an answer. You're telling me you don't know. TikTok
doesn't know.
Speaker 28 (28:40):
I'm Here's what I can tell you. I can tell
you that US and Singapore leadership. There are no CCP members,
I can tell.
Speaker 12 (28:48):
You, so you do know that. But you're telling me
that you don't know if there are any members who
are employed by TikTok or Byte Dance. Members of the
Chinese Communist.
Speaker 28 (28:57):
Party happy to go into the efforts.
Speaker 12 (28:59):
That Would it surprise you to learn that Forbes magazine
recently reports to that at least three hundred current TikTok
or ByteDance employees were members of Chinese state media and
affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
Speaker 28 (29:13):
Again, we don't look at the political affiliations or can't
speak to individuals, but what I can tell you is
we're protecting the data in the United States.
Speaker 12 (29:20):
Well, apparently though, you do look at political affiliation, because
you're quite willing to sit here and tell me that
no one who has strategic input or makes strategic decisions
as a member of the Chinese Communist Party. So you
do know very well as a matter of fact, you
just don't want to answer my other question. Do any
TikTok employees based in China have access to US user data?
Speaker 28 (29:38):
As we have publicly said, yes, we have engineers in China.
Speaker 12 (29:43):
But none of them are members of the parts.
Speaker 28 (29:45):
We are working on the access controls to minimize that
or that believe in states.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
At every turn, when asked directly whether the CCP had
access to America's private data on TikTok, the TikTok executive
tried to deflect the question.
Speaker 12 (30:00):
Access That's not my question, that's not poltimately question, That's
not my question.
Speaker 28 (30:04):
My question is access control you're not answering my point.
Speaker 12 (30:07):
I'll let the record reflect you will and answer my question.
My question is, does any employee who has access to
US user data are they members of the Chinese Communist Party?
Speaker 28 (30:16):
You will, and again, as a global technology platform, there
is no other company that could make that accession either.
Speaker 12 (30:23):
That sounds like a yes to me. That's I think
that's news.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Congress acted swiftly to the revelation.
Speaker 29 (30:35):
Congress is cracking down on TikTok. Lawmakers are no longer
allowed to download the app and must delete it from
all house issued mobile phones. Congress has already approved the
measure of banning TikTok on executive government devices.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Government workers were exiting the app, but the American public
was about to get a clear peak at how TikTok's
data could be used to spy on Americans. In March
twenty twenty three, Emily Baker White, the BuzzFeed journalist that
acquired the leaked audio TikTok meetings, claimed she'd been tracked
by China through TikTok.
Speaker 19 (31:08):
I learned from a source inside of the company that
the company was going to or sort of intending to
use my TikTok user data to pull my IP address
based location, which is an approximation of where I physically am,
and then we're going to try to match that to
the IP address based location on their employees' phones to
(31:29):
essentially see if I was meeting with anyone in a
cafe or a library, or even my house. And so
they eventually apparently did pull that data to try to
sort of figure out if I was meeting with anyone
inside TikTok, and by dance, the company is that they
didn't find anything from that investigation, but the fact that
(31:50):
they pulled it and the team that pulled it reported
to an executive in China and involved some people in
China really sort of shook the US government, staith that
US user data would not be improper access.
Speaker 23 (32:03):
To in China.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
The revelation whipped Washington d C into action again.
Speaker 29 (32:08):
CBS News has confirmed that the Justice Department is investigating
TikTok's parent company for possibly spying on American citizens, including journalists.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Within days, the CEO of TikTok Shows Echo was compelled
to testify, and representatives of Congress took turns to berating him.
Speaker 21 (32:26):
Can you say with one hundred percent certainty that TikTok
does not use the phones camera to determine whether the
content that elicits of pupil dilation should be amplified by
the algorithm. Can you tell me that.
Speaker 30 (32:42):
We do not collect body, face or voice data to
identify our users.
Speaker 28 (32:47):
We do not.
Speaker 27 (32:49):
You don't know.
Speaker 30 (32:50):
The only face data that you get that we collect
is when you use the filters to have sunglasses on
your face. We need to know where your eyes are.
Speaker 21 (32:57):
Why do you need to know what the ads are
if you're not seeing, if they're dilated.
Speaker 30 (33:01):
And that data is stored on your local and deleted
after use if you use it for facial Again, we
do not collect body, face or voice data to identify
our users.
Speaker 21 (33:10):
I find that hard to believe.
Speaker 31 (33:11):
From being health responsible for the death of a ten
year old girl who participated in a blackout challenge also
known as the choking challenge, TikTok actively pushes video on
our feed. Unfortunately, this is one of the many devastating
examples of children losing their lives because of content promoted
by TikTok.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
By the end of his lashing, TikTok CEO made a
pitch to calm fears.
Speaker 30 (33:34):
There are more than one hundred and fifty million Americans
who love our platform, and we know we have a
responsibility to protect them, which is why I'm making the
following commitments to you and to all our users. Number One,
we will keep safety, particularly for teenagers, as a top
priority for US. Number two, we will firewall protected US
data from unwanted foreign access. Number Three, TikTok will remain
(33:57):
a place for free expression and will not be manipulated
by any government.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
TikTok's list of enemies was swelling that they had one
thing on their side, TikTokers. The AI algorithm had gotten
so good that it was delivering exactly what users wanted,
and even TikTokers began to notice.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Dude, it's like TikTok knows what I'm thinking twenty four
to seven.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
I'm serious.
Speaker 27 (34:22):
I was literally just talking about pizza, and now my
entire feed is full of pizza tiktoks.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Okay, So I have this theory that the TikTok for
You page can literally read your mind.
Speaker 18 (34:31):
I swear this happens all the time, but this is
just the one instance.
Speaker 32 (34:34):
So I buy Nutella today.
Speaker 20 (34:35):
I never buy Nittella.
Speaker 29 (34:37):
And then I was just on my for you page,
trying to.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Sleep thinking about it, and guess which video pops up
on that for you Newtella.
Speaker 32 (34:46):
I'm telling you if this happens daily.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
TikTok had an ever growing enemies list. Parents, child advocates,
anti communist, Silicon Valley executives, national security hawks, free speech advocates,
and journalists all wanted the Chinese social media app band.
Lawmakers couldn't get legislation over the Hump to banish TikTok
because there was a large number of Democrat holdouts in Washington,
(35:11):
d C. It appeared TikTok had survived again, that is
until a horrific event hit the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Welcome back to red pilled America. So as twenty twenty
three progressed, TikTok was taking fire from all directions. Its
growing list of enemies all wanted to ban the Chinese
social media app, but lawmakers couldn't get legislation over the
Hump to banish TikTok because there was a large number
of Democrat holdouts in Washington, d C. It appeared TikTok
(35:47):
had survived again. That is until October seventh, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 33 (35:51):
We have breaking news out of Israel this morning, where
Hamas has launched a surprise attack within Israel's borders overnight,
first launching rockets from the Gaza Strip, then selling milliontons
into the streets of the southern part of Israel. Hundreds
of people have been injured, several have been killed, but
that number could be much higher.
Speaker 34 (36:11):
As we speak, Palestinian gunmen are inside Israeli cities and towns,
something we have never before seen on this scale, and
they are fighting running gun battles against Israeli ground forces. Hamas,
the major Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, says they
have taken Israeli's hostage and they have taken them back
(36:33):
inside of Gaza.
Speaker 22 (36:35):
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin NETANYAHUO declared the country was quote
at war. He said their enemy would pay an unprecedented price.
Israeli warplanes took aim at Gaza. Among the targets hit
this high rise, which was reduced to rubble. Hundreds have
been killed on both sides, and it is a sharp
escalation of violence for a region that bears the scars
(36:58):
of centuries of conflict.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
The region erupted in a seeming search for answer. Some
TikTokers began to research the conflict, and when they did,
a Letter to America went viral on the platform.
Speaker 35 (37:10):
This morning, I read Letter to America, which is Osama
bin Laden's letter to America explaining why he attacked Americans,
and I am ashamed to say that I not only
have never read this letter, but I didn't even know
this letter existed.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
The letter was Osama bin Laden's stated reason for attacking
America on nine to eleven, and at the top of
his list of reasons, he allegedly wrote.
Speaker 7 (37:37):
Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is
very simple, because you attacked us and continue to attack us.
You attacked us in Palestine.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
The letter went on to state that one of the
primary reasons for the nine to eleven attacks was America's
policies in Palestine. The letter had been lost to the
death pan of history, but when some TikTokers began researching
the history of the Israeli Palestine conflict, they found it
and its contents shocked them. It began posting their thoughts
on TikTok.
Speaker 35 (38:09):
So I just read a letter to America and I
will never look at life the same.
Speaker 34 (38:15):
I need you to stop what you're doing and go
read a letter to America.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
So this is insane.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
I just read Osama bin Laden's letter to America.
Speaker 28 (38:23):
It's actually so mind to me.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
The TikTok videos went viral, sending conservative media personalities into
an outrage.
Speaker 29 (38:32):
Get off your iPhone, pay attention to your child, look
at your kid's lessons, do some parenting if you're going
to bother having a child, and stop indoctrinating your own children.
To those of you who are on the.
Speaker 32 (38:43):
Left, Unfortunately, to an entire generation raised on the idea
that success equals oppression and failure equals being oppressed, it's
not obvious at all that Osama bin Laden was evil.
In fact, he was apparently an aggrieved victim with a
shockingly cogent case against the West. That is according to
a bevy of new videos trending on TikTok of TikTok
generation Americans reading Osama ban Laden's letter to America.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Over the weeks that followed the October seventh attacks, pro
Palestinian posts began to rise on TikTok. It wasn't the
only social media platform that experienced this phenomenon. Both x
and YouTube included posts that were sympathetic to Palestinians, but
TikTok had a few things working against it. It was
already in Washington, d C's crosshairs, and it had the
(39:25):
attention of the youth. It reflected the future of America,
and some wanted to nip that pro Palestinian narrative in
the bud enter. The ADL, the Anti Defamation League, is
a powerful pro Israel lobby in Washington.
Speaker 23 (39:40):
D C.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
And the director of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, realized that
they had a problem on their hands. He began organizing
teleconferences with supporters, and an audio of one meeting eventually
leaked the.
Speaker 23 (39:58):
Young and all a monomery of a young people booking
at Amasa Masner when he to find and jogging Len
and terrifying Lei. And so we we have a maritalk
problem and an air problem in our community. To point
the fame Brain that gave up Tagline, the fame Braine
(40:20):
that gave us all these other amazing innovation aid to
putter energy towards this like cool craft.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Behind the scenes, the pro Israel lobby began pressuring Washington
DC to do something about TikTok, and it wasn't long
before Senator Josh Holly pulled on this thread to wage
a new attack on the Chinese owned platform.
Speaker 12 (40:41):
More than fifty percent of young Americans gen Z between
the ages of eighteen and twenty four believed that Hamasa's
murder of civilians was justified. These are the same people
who are going on TikTok to get their news, to
get their information, to be influenced, and they certainly are
being influenced. Media reports have annalog is the prevalence of
(41:04):
anti Israel, anti Semitic pro Hamas content on TikTok is
really quite astounding. Just take a look at the trending
hashtags stand with Palestine two hundred and eighty five million
views impressions. By contrast, Stand with Israel far far less
sixty four million, And this doesn't actually begin to tell
(41:27):
the story.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
In January twenty twenty four, Senator Holly summoned the CEO
of TikTok back before the Senate.
Speaker 12 (41:45):
You are owned by a Chinese Communist company or a
company based in China. The editor in chief of your
parent company is a Communist Party secretary. Your company has
been surveilling Americans for years. According to leaked audio for
more than eighty internal TikTok meetings. China based employees of
(42:06):
your company have repeatedly accessed non public data of United
States citizens. Your company has tracked journalists improperly gaining access
to their IP addresses user data in an attempt to
identify whether they're writing negative stories about you. Your platform
is basically an espionage arm for the Chinese Communist Party.
Why should you not be banned in the United States
(42:27):
of America?
Speaker 30 (42:28):
Senator I disagree with your characterization many of what you
have said. We have explained in a lot of detail.
TikTok is used by one hundred and seventy million Americans.
Speaker 12 (42:36):
I know when every single one of those Americans are
in danger from the fact that you track their keystrokes,
you track their app usage, you track their location data,
and we know that all of that information can be
accessed by Chinese employees who are subject to the dictats
of the Chinese Communist Party. According to the Wall Street
Journal report from just yesterday, even now bitedance workers without
(42:59):
going through official channels, have access to the private information
of American citizen up pointing from the article, private information
of American citizens, including their birthday, their IP address, and more.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
That's now, Senator.
Speaker 30 (43:10):
As we know, the media doesn't always.
Speaker 23 (43:12):
Get it right.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
The TikTok CEO claimed that the company had since spent
billions of dollars to build security walls to protect Americans data.
But Senator Holly wasn't having.
Speaker 12 (43:23):
It, mister Chew. It's not protected at all. It's subject
to Communist Chinese Party inspection and review. Your app unlike
anybody else sitting here, and Heaven knows, I've got problems
with everybody here, but your app, unlike any of those,
is subject to the control and inspection of a foreign
hostile government that has actively trying to track the information
(43:44):
and whereabouts of every American that they get their hands on.
Your app ought to be banned in the United States
of America for the security of this country.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
After a roughly four and a half year battle, the
right combination of groups at just the right time had gathered,
and in late April twenty twenty four, a TikTok divestri
b Band Bill easily passed in cong.
Speaker 11 (44:03):
On this vote, the yea's are eighty, the nays are nineteen.
Three fifths of the senators duly chosen and then sworn
having voted in the affirmative. The motion is agreed.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
To a litany of conspiracy theories for why TikTok was
banned flooded American airwaves. Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson believed China
was using TikTok to spy on Americans.
Speaker 18 (44:26):
The CCP is using TikTok as a spyware tool on Americans.
Speaker 14 (44:30):
They're weaponizing our kids.
Speaker 24 (44:31):
They have spread misinformation.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Conservative media commentator Candice Owans thought it was the pro
Israel lobby is.
Speaker 36 (44:38):
Apac ADL shoving through laws through Congress, John Green Black
getting caught. You know, if you want to talk about
not giving into Jewish conspiracies, John Green Black getting caught
on the ADL on the hot mic talking about how
we got to get rid of TikTok, and then tomorrow
it gets passed through Congress.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
And progressive commentator Chank Yuger believed it was Silicon Valley.
Speaker 12 (44:56):
Here's what I believe, the social media players, including Facebook,
giving them tons of money to band TikTok.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
The theories were elaborate, backed by passion and some facts,
but none of them are accurate by themselves. Congress's theory
that TikTok could be used by Chinese spyware was likely true,
but wasn't definitively proven in a court of law. But
even if it was true, national security wasn't the only
reason for TikTok being on the brink of banishment. Candice
(45:23):
Owen's theory that it was the Israeli lobby was inadvertently
backed by a Republican insider. In a public discussion with
Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln, former GOP Senator Mitt Romney
openly expressed that TikTok was being taken down because of
its pro Palestinian posts.
Speaker 9 (45:39):
Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for US
to shut down potentially TikTok or other entities of that nature.
If you look at the postings on TikTok and the
number of mentions of Palestinian's relative to other social media sites,
it's overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
But that alone was not the reason TikTok was brought
to the brink of banishment. The ADL has tried unsuccessfully
to take down the X platform for years. Chenk Yuger's
theory that it was Silicon Valley had some validity. It
was Mark Zuckerberg that was the first to ring the
alarm on TikTok. But Silicon Valley alone couldn't have taken
down TikTok. It had already tried and failed. It wasn't
(46:20):
just one of these groups that brought TikTok to the
brink of banishment. It took them each to jump on
the train until one event provided the opportunity for the
collective to deliver the crippling blow. This is how these
types of events occur. What looks like an evil conspiracy
is usually just a collective of groups coming together at
just the right time to reach a goal. Take, for example,
(46:42):
the first conspiracy that Americans are introduced to the existence
of Santa Claus. When a child first learns the truth
behind this chubby old man from the North Pole. They
blamed their conspiring parents for the sad revelation, but in reality,
it took a much larger group of conspirators to pull
off one of the most successful conspiracies in American history.
(47:02):
Sam was brought to life in New York City in
the early eighteen hundreds, when the Christmas season wasn't a
calm family time, but instead resembled a rowdy Mardi Gras.
Loud and drunken mobs used the time to flip the
tables on authority and harass the elites. Christmas Time in
the early eighteen hundreds was at times chaotic ruled by
(47:23):
a degenerate mob. So, in an attempt to calm the season,
a group of New York elites transformed the fifteen hundred
year old Saint Nicholas to what we know as Santa Claus,
and he was used as a tool by a group
of conspirators to calm the season. Law enforcements saw Santa
Claus as the perfect tool to calm the rowdy streets.
Product makers and retailers saw the jolly old soul as
(47:45):
a perfect vehicle to sell their goods, and parents saw
Santa Claus as the perfect weapon to incentivize good behavior
in their kids. Much of American society embraced the winner
gift giver, but it wasn't until the Church realized Saint
Nick could be used to create a family friendly day
of warship that Santa Claus became embedded into American culture.
(48:06):
The right collection of conspirators came together to make Santa
a reality. Each one with their own reason to join
the conspiracy. TikTok had become the first Chinese social media
app to crack the global market, so Silicon Valley went
on the attack to protect its dominance. The short video
app truly was and is a national security threat as
(48:27):
well as a threat to the health of America's youth,
so politicians and parents moved to ban it, and tik
Tok was allowing unauthorized political conversations, leading to pressure from
foreign powers. To this collective of groups, it had to go.
With trust in American institutions at an all time low,
no one believed the official reason behind Washington's attack on TikTok,
(48:49):
and some began to fill the void with conspiracy theories
that countered the narrative of their leaders and its a
reasonable response to a media that has, on many occasions
been caught spreading a false narrative.
Speaker 37 (49:00):
The Trump campaign is accusing Twitter and facebok Book of
censorship after the social media companies blocked the spread of
an unverified story about former Vice President Joe Biden's son
and the laptop allegedly full of his old emails.
Speaker 15 (49:14):
More than fifty former intelligence officials released a statement that
the laptop had all the classic earmarks of a Russian
information operation.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Which leads us back to the questions what is a
conspiracy theory and why have they become so common? The
current textbook definition of a conspiracy theory is a belief
that some secret, influential organization is responsible for an event
or phenomenon, but that definition is outdated Today. A conspiracy
theory is an explanation that goes against the authorized narrative.
(49:55):
As a result, the phrase is often wielded as a
smear by the same people paid to keep the narrative alive.
Conspiracy theories have become so common for one simple fact.
Americans have lost trust in our institutions. The official reason
behind Washington, DC's attack on TikTok is that it posed
a national security threat, but lack of trust in Americans
(50:15):
institutions has led to a litany of conspiracy theories challenging
that official position. It was Facebook, it was the deep state, No,
it was foreign powers. Each of these conspiracy theories were wrong,
but if you put them together, you get closer to
the truth. However, these conspiracy theories would have never risen
if people had trust in our institutions. TikTok could have
(50:35):
been defaned by any of the numerous laws already on
the books, and there are plenty. But instead, Washington DC
passed a law that gave more power to Washington d C.
Speaker 10 (50:46):
What we've authorized here is not a TikTok ban. It
is a sweeping new federal power to ban foreign adversary
controlled applications. I believe that eventually what they will do
is try and push Elon to divest X.
Speaker 1 (50:59):
If our leaders truly want to stop the spread of
conspiracy theories, perhaps they should focus on gaining back trust
through their actions, because many Americans have learned a little
trick about how to spot the truth, and that is
watch not what they say, but what they do.
Speaker 19 (51:15):
Bottom Vice President, are you on TikTok?
Speaker 32 (51:17):
Well, I've heard that recently.
Speaker 36 (51:18):
I've been on the for you page, so I thought
i'd get on here myself.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned
and produced by Patrick Carrelci and me Adriana Cortez for
Informed Ventures.
Speaker 23 (51:31):
Now.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
You can get ad free access to our entire catalog
of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, just
visit redpilled america dot com and could join in the
top menu. Thanks for listening,
This is red Pilled America.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
It's time to tell our side of the story. But
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Support what you love or it goes away.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Previously on Red Pilled America.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Big congratulations to the alphag Team.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
AI, developed by a Western company, had humiliated China at
their own game in their homeland. This could not stand,
so began the AI arms race. China declared that by
twenty thirty it would become the world's leader in artificial intelligence.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
What concerns critics are the broad powers the law will
give China as it pursues so called cyber sovereignty. Companies
in key industries will need to open up their computer
systems for security examinations.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
The new law could be used by the CCP to
access the personal data of Americans.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
I'm Patrick Currelci and.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
I'm Adriana Cortes.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
And this is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
This is not another talk show covering the day's news.
We're all about telling stories.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
The media marks stories about everyday Americans at the Globalist ignore.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries,
and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to
Red Pilled America. We're at the finale of our series
(02:21):
of episodes entitled TikTok Conspiracy. If you haven't heard parts
one and two, stop and go back and listen from
the beginning. We're looking for the answer to the questions
what is the conspiracy theory and why have they become
so common by telling the story of how TikTok was
pushed to the brink of banishment in America. So to
(02:43):
pick up where we left off in twenty seventeen, the
China based Byte Dance wanted to go global with its
wildly popular short video app Doyenne, But with China's strict
content restrictions. Byte Dance couldn't just open Doyen to the world.
That would have brought Western videos into the communist country.
Byte Dance's co founders Ung Yieming had to think outside
(03:05):
the box, and he came up with a solution. He
decided to create a separate app for the global market
by cloning Doyene. He called the new app TikTok. To
hit the ground running in America, by Dance purchased the
lip syncing social media app Musically, which had an estimated
sixty million active users in the US. Yming merged Musically's
users into TikTok and officially launched the app in the
(03:28):
United States in twenty eighteen. Almost immediately, TikTok exploded into popularity.
By September twenty eighteen, it surpassed Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and
Snapchat for the most downloads in America. Big name celebrities
flocked to TikTok Here's my Major's Moodie recipe first Alman Milk.
(03:49):
But the short video app did something unexpected. It created
a new kind of celebrity. Users of the app began
racking up massive followings names like Lisa and Lina Loren
Gray and Zach King, complete unknowns in her Hollywood became
TikTok famous on the social media app, drawing tens of
millions of followers. Bite Dance had a hit on their hands,
(04:11):
and that's when the Knives came out.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
First. In February twenty nineteen, the Federal Trade Commission went
after TikTok for illegally collecting personal information from children after
parent complaints. The FTC found that many TikTokers, as they'd
come to be known, were under the age of thirteen.
TikTok was publishing their personal data without parental permission, which
(04:41):
was a violation of US law. The FTC eventually hit
TikTok with a record five point seven million dollar fine. Then,
in early April twenty nineteen, TikTok was briefly blocked in
India when an Indian court accused the app of allegedly
encouraging pornography and displaying quote inappropriate content. The ban was
(05:01):
lifted later that month, but TikTok's problems were just getting started.
In September twenty nineteen, The Guardian revealed that TikTok directed
moderators to censor videos of banned subjects in China. The
report showed how Byteedance was exporting Chinese censorship to the
(05:21):
world via their app, and it ignited the ire of
the free speech advocates. But even as the list of
TikTok's foes grew, the app continued to explode in popularity.
As twenty nineteen came to a close, TikTok had acquired
a stunning five hundred million active global users. It was
ranked one of the most installed apps in forty countries
(05:45):
and continued to outpace Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Facebook and downloads.
A serious war was being waged against Silicon Valley's social
media supremacy, and it inevitably caught the eye of the
King of social networks, Mark Zuckerberg.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Now China is building its own Internet, focused on very
different values, and it's now exporting their vision of the
Internet to other countries.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
In an October twenty nineteen speech at Georgetown University, Zuckerberg
began ringing the alarm on the growing social media power
of China.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Now, until recently, the Internet almost every country outside of
China has been defined by American platforms with strong free
expression values, but there's no guarantee that these values will
win out. A decade ago, almost all of the major
Internet platforms were American. Today six of the top ten
are Chinese, and we're beginning to see this in social
(06:38):
media too. While our services like WhatsApp are used by
protesters and activists everywhere due to strong encryption and privacy protections,
on TikTok, the Chinese app growing quickly around the world,
mentions of these same protests are censored even here in
the US. Is that the Internet that we want?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Zuckerberg explained that China was keeping Facebook's apps out of
its country while companies like TikTok were rapidly expanding spreading
China's values to the world.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
If another nation's platform set the rules, our discourse can
be defined by a completely different set of values.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
TikTok had a new foe in Silicon Valley, and it
was no coincidence. At Zuckerberg delivered his speech at Georgetown,
the university is in the heart of Washington.
Speaker 5 (07:27):
D C.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
His message quickly caught the attention of lawmakers, and New
York Senator Chuck Schumer was the first to grab the microphone.
Speaker 6 (07:35):
A growing chorus of senators are calling for an immediate investigation,
warning the app owned by a Chinese tech company could
pose a national security threat.
Speaker 7 (07:44):
There are one hundred and ten million Americans who have
information with TikTok, and the Chinese government could be grabbing
every one of them.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
The question was whether China could use TikTok as a
spying device on Americans, and it was a fair question.
After Google's AI algorithm mastered the ancient Chinese strategic game
of Go, the Red Dragon believed it had fallen behind
to the West in artificial intelligence. An AI arms race
was ignited on national security grounds. China quickly enacted laws
(08:15):
that required Chinese owned companies to provide access to their
data to the Chinese Communist Party or CCP. Bye Dance,
the China based owner of TikTok, was not immune to
this law, and the head of the company displayed a
willingness to bend the knee to the CCP if needed.
About sixteen months before Zuckerberg's speech, in April twenty eighteen,
(08:37):
China orchestrated a power move against byte Dance. It ordered
the internet startup to shut down its popular joke sharing app,
bite Dance's first big hit. China also demanded a halt
to new downloads of the news app Totiau, which was
bite Dance's bread and butter. The CCP also reportedly ordered
(08:57):
the Chinese version of TikTok doin to suspend its live
streaming function. Dance was at the time valued at twenty
billion dollars. It was already a behemoth, yet it was
just a tiny little ant under the boot of the CCP.
The message sent to Jean Yiming was simple, if you
don't comply, you will be crushed. So Yiming went into action.
(09:23):
He promised the CCP to almost double Byteedance's content moderators
from a staff of six thousand to ten thousand, all
dedicated to censoring band content. He also committed to creating
a blacklist of band users while developing advanced censorship technology.
In his lengthy apology to the CCP, Yiming.
Speaker 8 (09:44):
Stated, we didn't realize that technology has to be guided
by the core values of socialism, so it can be
used to spread positive energy, meet the requirements of the times,
and respect public order and good customs.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Shortly after issuing the statement, Yiming's news app Totiao began
highlighting glowing stories of China's communist leader gingping at the
top of the app. The groveling appeared to work. The
restrictions were lifted on all but the joke sharing app. Then,
within two weeks of this public apology, Yiming was invited
to deliver the keynote speech at a tech meeting hosted
(10:18):
by China's Internet regulators, the topic byte Dance's plan for
global expansion. It's fair to say that Yiming was given
direct approval from the CCP to expand his AI powered
apps globally. By threatening to cut off Byteedance's access to
the country's one point four billion users, China forced one
(10:41):
of the country's biggest tech companies to conform to its
communist values. As November twenty nineteen arrived, byte Dance reorganized
its management structure, making the head of TikTok report directly
to Yi Ming, the man that had bent the knee
to the CCP. With Mark Zuckerberg ringing the alarm in Washington,
DC that TikTok may be a communist trojan horse, lawmakers
(11:05):
were legitimately concerned, and they went into action. Republican Senators
Marco Rubio and Tom Cotton joined Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer
urging the US intelligence community to assess the national security
risk of TikTok. They argued that it could be used
to spy on US citizens or as a platform for
foreign influence campaigns. By the following week, it was clear
(11:29):
that the senator's warning made an impact.
Speaker 9 (11:31):
Well, all the kids are doing it, and I guess
it's all the rigs among celebrities.
Speaker 10 (11:34):
But America now launching a national security.
Speaker 11 (11:37):
Review of TikTok. The Chinese owned video sharing app under
scrutiny for its data collection practices and whether it follows
Chinese censorship rules.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
But it was Republican Senator Josh Holly that would become
the loudest voice on this issue. Holly called on TikTok
to testify before Congress. The company ignored him, so the
US senator made sure to shame the Chinese short video
app at a November twenty nineteen hearing. In his opening remarks.
Speaker 12 (12:05):
Parents, if you don't know what TikTok is, you should.
It's a Chinese own social media platform so popular among
teens that Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly spooked for Facebook. The
fear is lost social media market share for the rest
of US, The fear somewhat different. A company compromised by
the Chinese Communist Party knows where your children are, knows
(12:27):
what they look like, with their voices, sound like, with
their watching, and what they share with each other. TikTok
claims they don't store American user data in China. That's nice,
but all it takes is one knock on the door
of their parent company based in China from a Communist
Party official for that data to be transferred to the
Chinese government's hands whenever they needed.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Holly shared a letter from TikTok. Officials from the app
claimed they did not take direction from China.
Speaker 12 (12:56):
But that's not what former employees of TikTok say today.
The Washington Post is reporting that TikTok's Chinese parent company
imposed strict rules on what could appear on the app,
in keeping with China's restrictive view of acceptable speech. Former
employee said company officials based in Beijing had the final
call on whether flagged videos were approved. The former employees
(13:20):
said their attempts to persuade Chinese teams not to block
or penalize certain videos were routinely ignored out of caution
about the Chinese government's restrictions. One former Byte Dance manager
that's TikTok's parent company, Byte Dance, said this, They want
to be a global company, TikTok and numbers wise, they've
had that success, but the purse is still in China.
(13:42):
The money always comes from there and the decisions all
come from there. That's sure a different story than the
one TikTok has told this committee in this letter, and
that's a problem. They should have been here today, but
after this letter to this committee, they must now appear
under oath to tell the truth about their company at
(14:03):
its ambitions and what they're doing with our data.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Holly spelled out the dangers of the Chinese owned app.
Speaker 12 (14:09):
The threat isn't just a children's privacy, it's a threat
to our national security. We don't know what China can
do with this kind of social data in aggregate what
it tells China about our society. They can see who
we talk to, what we talk about, where we congregate
what we capture on video. Not all of TikTok's users
are just kids. Some work in government or for the military.
(14:30):
Others are celebrities or work for major American companies and
positions of influence. What does it mean for China to
have a window into such users' social lives? Why would
we leave that window open?
Speaker 2 (14:45):
The national security issue began to slowly seep into the
consciousness of the American public, but it was an unexpected
international event that would not only bring more scrutiny on TikTok,
but exponentially amplify its popularity as well.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
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yourself and those you love and taste the difference. Welcome
back to Red Pilled America. So in late twenty nineteen,
US Senator Josh Holly exposed TikTok's national security threat, but
it was an unexpected international event that would not only
bring more scrutiny on TikTok, but exponentially amplify its popularity
(16:25):
as well.
Speaker 13 (16:29):
China has identified the cause of the mysterious pneumonia outbreak
in Wuhan City, and it's from the same family that
caused the deadly SARS epidemic seventeen years ago. It's a
new type of coronavirus.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
In early January twenty twenty, news slowly began to leak
out that a novel coronavirus was devastating the city of Wuhan.
China and had the potential to break out globally. By
the end of the month, the virus made its way
to US shores.
Speaker 14 (16:56):
A SARS like virus, which has infected hundreds in China,
has now reached the United States.
Speaker 15 (17:03):
Tonight, US cases of coronavirus more than doubling, with two
new cases in southern California and one in Maricopa County, Arizona,
the CDC conforming all five patients in the US had
traveled to Ruhan.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It wasn't long before the COVID nineteen outbreak turned into
a national panic, and US governors began taking unprecedented steps.
Governors like California's Gavin Newsom led the way in school shutdowns.
Speaker 16 (17:28):
Ninety eight point eight percent of our schools have closed down.
Let me be candid, I would plan and assume that
it's unlikely that many of these schools, few if any,
will open before the summer break.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
By the end of March twenty twenty, roughly seventy million
K through twelve and college students were sent home with
no time frame for their return to class. Over the
coming weeks, the kids got restless. They began downloading TikTok
in record numbers. In June twenty twenty, TikTok was once
again the most downloaded app of the year, racking up
(18:03):
eight hundred million active users globally. The same country that
was responsible for the conditions that sent kids home was
also in control of the app consuming their lives. It
was an ironic twist, and President Trump made sure the
point wasn't lost.
Speaker 17 (18:19):
Some important developments in our war against the Chinese virus?
Speaker 15 (18:23):
Why do you keep calling this the Chinese virus?
Speaker 6 (18:26):
There are reports of.
Speaker 18 (18:27):
Dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans in this country.
Speaker 19 (18:32):
Why do you keep using this because fromist.
Speaker 17 (18:35):
It's not racist at all, No, not at all. It
comes from China.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Tensions rose between China and the US, and Chinese officials
eventually responded with threats.
Speaker 6 (18:47):
China, rather than trying to calm fears, now is ratcheting
up threats. This recent article came out in China state
run newspaper. It's called shin Wah. It's basically the mouthpiece
for the Communist Party. It claimed China might impose pharmaceutical
export controls that had plunged America into quote the mighty
sea of the Corona virus.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
This was the state of US China relations in June
twenty twenty, and TikTok was about to get caught in
the crossfire. In mid June, the Trump twenty twenty campaign
planned its first rally since the start of COVID shutdowns.
President Trump announced that a million people requested tickets. The
rally appeared to be set for an unprecedented turnout. The
(19:34):
only problem was the Trump campaign had been pranked by TikTokers.
Around the time the rally was announced, a Democrat Party
volunteer came up with an idea to humiliate President Trump.
She posted a video over idea on TikTok.
Speaker 18 (19:49):
If you've been paying attention to the news, you know
that Donald Trump was planning on holding his first political
rally post quarantine on June nineteenth, unto Oklahoma. Somebody on
another TikTok post commented that he was offering two free
tickets on his campaign website to to this rally. So
I want investigated it. It's two free tickets per cell
phone number, because when you register, you have to give
them your cell phone number. They send you a code,
(20:10):
You put the code in and your tickets are reserved
for you. So I recommend all of those of us
that want to see this nineteen thousand seat auditorium barely
filled or completely empty, go reserve tickets now and leave
them standing there alone on the stage. What do you say?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Well? The video went viral and the liberals on TikTok
began bombarding the Trump campaign with requests for tickets to
an event they were never going to attend. As the
ticket request soared, President Trump posted on his Twitter account.
Speaker 17 (20:36):
Almost one million people request tickets for the Saturday night
rally and Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
But when the event arrived, it was clear that Trump
had been pranked.
Speaker 20 (20:44):
Donald Trump's re election rally fizzles in an arena he
promised would be packed.
Speaker 17 (20:50):
We've never had an empty seat, and we certainly won't
in Oklahoma.
Speaker 20 (20:54):
Not one empty seat, but thousands. Was TikTok trolling? The
reason no one showed up.
Speaker 14 (21:00):
Well, that arena is not full, the outside empty. They
couldn't even get nineteen thousand people there, and they had
bragged that they were going to be a million. There
is a lot of Twitter traffic that says he was
played by young people and K pop fans who ordered
tickets with no intention of going.
Speaker 20 (21:18):
People were mass ordering tickets.
Speaker 14 (21:19):
They played them, They got played by teenagers.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
The ordeal was a huge embarrassment. TikTok had gained a
new enemy, and it wasn't long until Trump began floating
an idea directed at the app that platformed the prank.
Speaker 17 (21:33):
We're looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok.
Speaker 21 (21:36):
We may be.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Doing some other things.
Speaker 17 (21:38):
There are a couple of options, but we are looking
at a lot of alternatives with respect to TikTok.
Speaker 6 (21:45):
And the President insists that he does have the authority
to ban the app.
Speaker 20 (21:49):
He signal that he could take action as.
Speaker 18 (21:51):
Early as today, but so far no word yet from
the White House Tonight.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
By August twenty twenty, it became official.
Speaker 22 (22:04):
Dal Jones is not reporting the President will sign an
order demanding Byteedance to divest TikTok.
Speaker 17 (22:08):
It can't be controlled for security reasons by China. Too big,
too invasive. And here's the deal, whether it's Microsoft or
somebody else, a big company, a secure company, very very
American company by it, Di said a date of around
September fifteenth, at which point it's going to be out
of business in the United States. But if somebody then
(22:31):
whether it's Microsoft or somebody else buys it, that'll be interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
But in a series of legal moves, Byte Dance was
able to buy some time. A US federal judge blocked
Trump's executive order that would have removed TikTok from app stores.
Another judge altered a ban on US transactions with the app.
With the twenty twenty election results, throwing the TikTok divestment
into a limbo. Senator Josh Holly again took his argument
(22:59):
against TikTok to the airwaves.
Speaker 12 (23:01):
Executives from TikTok they will never come and take the
oath and testify in public. That I think is unusual,
and I think it begs the question, what is it they.
Speaker 23 (23:11):
Have to hide?
Speaker 1 (23:12):
And it was clear at the time that China had
been upping its efforts to spy on America. Earlier in
the year, four Chinese military hackers were charged with stealing
the credit report records of one hundred and forty five
million Americans. The communist country had also been caught hacking
records from the second largest American health insurer. The threat
(23:33):
to national security was real, but the turmoil did nothing
to slow down the growth of TikTok. With its US
banishment in Limbo, the app's popularity had only grown worldwide.
It had been downloaded a staggering two point five billion
times and was in more than one hundred and fifty countries.
But with the concerns over the app mounting, in February
(23:54):
twenty twenty one, America's new President, Joe Biden, shelved the
plan to force the sale of the app. The pressure
on ByteDance began to subside, so much so in May
twenty twenty one, a genius entrepreneur that co founded by
Dance took the opportunity to step down.
Speaker 5 (24:10):
We'll talking about Jong e Ming, who is the CEO.
He's going to be handing the reins to Rubo Lian.
Jongi Ming, by the way, he founded the company in
twenty twelve. He says he wants to focus on long
term strategy. That's where his eyes are set now.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
Jung Ji Ming thought he'd dodged a bullet, But what
the Chinese Ai wizard couldn't have known was that his
enemies were about to get their second wind.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Do you want to hear red pilled America stories ad
Free then become a backstage subscriber. Just log onto Redpilleddamerica
dot com and click join in the top menu. Join
today and help us save America one story at a time.
Welcome back to red Pilled America. So by mid twenty
twenty one, TikTok's enemy list had swelled. Its Chinese owned
(25:05):
parent company had drawn the ire of child advocacy groups,
privacy activists, free speech advocates, Silicon Valley executives, national security hawks,
and even the President of the United States that every
attack on the app had failed because Americans were hooked
on the dopamine hit that the app provided. TikTok had
(25:25):
even become a valuable monetization tool, providing American creators with
the source of income. When President Biden entered the White House,
the pressure on TikTok subsided that by the end of
his first year in office, pressure mounted again when a
new byt Dance board member was revealed in in October
twenty twenty one Senate hearing, a TikTok official was confronted
(25:48):
on the identity of the new board member by Republican
Senator Marshall Blackburn.
Speaker 24 (25:52):
Earlier this year, the Chinese Communist Party acquired an ownership
state and a seat on the board of Bike Dance.
Theil Kanese Communist Party ask you for US user data,
what is to stop you from providing it? Since they
have a seat on the board of Byte Dance and
they have a financial stake in the company.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
I'm senator, that's not accurate.
Speaker 21 (26:16):
One.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
They do not have a steak in TikTok at all.
Speaker 24 (26:19):
Yes to do it happened in August.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
I'm senator, that's not act.
Speaker 24 (26:22):
It is Byte Dance. We can clarify that for the record.
But the record is that the Chinese Communist Party acquired
a steak in Byte Dance in August and they now
have a seat on the board.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
The battle to band TikTok was reignited, and in mid
twenty twenty two, the website BuzzFeed dropped a bombshell that
fueled the fight for Yes.
Speaker 25 (26:45):
TikTok has maintained that data from users from America is
stored only in America and any concerns of a threat
to data privacy are unfounded, but now lead to audio
from itty TikTok meeting suggests that non public data was
repeatedly accessed by employees in China well the video platform
spared and company by Dancer's host. This despite TikTok sworn
(27:07):
testimony in a Senate heading in twenty twenty one that
only the US based security team decides who gets access
to the data.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
The journalist for the Bezzfeed report, Emily Baker White, revealed
that she'd received leaked audio from eighty internal TikTok meetings,
and the audio stoked fears that TikTok was a trojan
horse carrying Chinese spyware.
Speaker 25 (27:27):
Employees can be heard seeing phrases like everything is seen
in China and also refer to Beijing based engineers as
the master admin who have access to everything.
Speaker 26 (27:37):
Imagine what they're doing with the data, the information that
people are willingly putting online, all their private stuff. This
is not an American based social media company. This is
going directly to the Communist Party of China.
Speaker 27 (27:51):
The terms of service is nuts. And it's one thing
to like say, oh, we're going to target ads in
your direction. We're kind of use to that or whatever,
like with Google enloy, I don't mind if they'd send
ads my way, but that what they're doing is nuts.
They have access to your audio. That means they have
access to your microphone. They're listening to you talk.
Speaker 2 (28:10):
By September twenty twenty two, Senator Josh Hawley finally got
his chance to grill TikTok when the company sent its
chief operating officer, Vanessa Pappas to testify before Congress.
Speaker 12 (28:21):
Are there members of the Chinese Communist Party employed by
TikTok and Byte Dance?
Speaker 7 (28:25):
Yes or no.
Speaker 28 (28:26):
I wouldn't be able to tell you the political affiliation
of any individual. What I can tell you is how
much we're better.
Speaker 12 (28:32):
No, A membership in the Communist Chinese Party is not
exactly like membership in the Democrat Party. So I'm looking
for an answer. You're telling me you don't know. TikTok
doesn't know.
Speaker 28 (28:40):
I'm Here's what I can tell you. I can tell
you that US and Singapore leadership. There are no CCP members,
I can tell.
Speaker 12 (28:48):
You, so you do know that. But you're telling me
that you don't know if there are any members who
are employed by TikTok or Byte Dance. Members of the
Chinese Communist.
Speaker 28 (28:57):
Party happy to go into the efforts.
Speaker 12 (28:59):
That Would it surprise you to learn that Forbes magazine
recently reports to that at least three hundred current TikTok
or ByteDance employees were members of Chinese state media and
affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party.
Speaker 28 (29:13):
Again, we don't look at the political affiliations or can't
speak to individuals, but what I can tell you is
we're protecting the data in the United States.
Speaker 12 (29:20):
Well, apparently though, you do look at political affiliation, because
you're quite willing to sit here and tell me that
no one who has strategic input or makes strategic decisions
as a member of the Chinese Communist Party. So you
do know very well as a matter of fact, you
just don't want to answer my other question. Do any
TikTok employees based in China have access to US user data?
Speaker 28 (29:38):
As we have publicly said, yes, we have engineers in China.
Speaker 12 (29:43):
But none of them are members of the parts.
Speaker 28 (29:45):
We are working on the access controls to minimize that
or that believe in states.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
At every turn, when asked directly whether the CCP had
access to America's private data on TikTok, the TikTok executive
tried to deflect the question.
Speaker 12 (30:00):
Access That's not my question, that's not poltimately question, That's
not my question.
Speaker 28 (30:04):
My question is access control you're not answering my point.
Speaker 12 (30:07):
I'll let the record reflect you will and answer my question.
My question is, does any employee who has access to
US user data are they members of the Chinese Communist Party?
Speaker 28 (30:16):
You will, and again, as a global technology platform, there
is no other company that could make that accession either.
Speaker 12 (30:23):
That sounds like a yes to me. That's I think
that's news.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
Congress acted swiftly to the revelation.
Speaker 29 (30:35):
Congress is cracking down on TikTok. Lawmakers are no longer
allowed to download the app and must delete it from
all house issued mobile phones. Congress has already approved the
measure of banning TikTok on executive government devices.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Government workers were exiting the app, but the American public
was about to get a clear peak at how TikTok's
data could be used to spy on Americans. In March
twenty twenty three, Emily Baker White, the BuzzFeed journalist that
acquired the leaked audio TikTok meetings, claimed she'd been tracked
by China through TikTok.
Speaker 19 (31:08):
I learned from a source inside of the company that
the company was going to or sort of intending to
use my TikTok user data to pull my IP address
based location, which is an approximation of where I physically am,
and then we're going to try to match that to
the IP address based location on their employees' phones to
(31:29):
essentially see if I was meeting with anyone in a
cafe or a library, or even my house. And so
they eventually apparently did pull that data to try to
sort of figure out if I was meeting with anyone
inside TikTok, and by dance, the company is that they
didn't find anything from that investigation, but the fact that
(31:50):
they pulled it and the team that pulled it reported
to an executive in China and involved some people in
China really sort of shook the US government, staith that
US user data would not be improper access.
Speaker 23 (32:03):
To in China.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
The revelation whipped Washington d C into action again.
Speaker 29 (32:08):
CBS News has confirmed that the Justice Department is investigating
TikTok's parent company for possibly spying on American citizens, including journalists.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
Within days, the CEO of TikTok Shows Echo was compelled
to testify, and representatives of Congress took turns to berating him.
Speaker 21 (32:26):
Can you say with one hundred percent certainty that TikTok
does not use the phones camera to determine whether the
content that elicits of pupil dilation should be amplified by
the algorithm. Can you tell me that.
Speaker 30 (32:42):
We do not collect body, face or voice data to
identify our users.
Speaker 28 (32:47):
We do not.
Speaker 27 (32:49):
You don't know.
Speaker 30 (32:50):
The only face data that you get that we collect
is when you use the filters to have sunglasses on
your face. We need to know where your eyes are.
Speaker 21 (32:57):
Why do you need to know what the ads are
if you're not seeing, if they're dilated.
Speaker 30 (33:01):
And that data is stored on your local and deleted
after use if you use it for facial Again, we
do not collect body, face or voice data to identify
our users.
Speaker 21 (33:10):
I find that hard to believe.
Speaker 31 (33:11):
From being health responsible for the death of a ten
year old girl who participated in a blackout challenge also
known as the choking challenge, TikTok actively pushes video on
our feed. Unfortunately, this is one of the many devastating
examples of children losing their lives because of content promoted
by TikTok.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
By the end of his lashing, TikTok CEO made a
pitch to calm fears.
Speaker 30 (33:34):
There are more than one hundred and fifty million Americans
who love our platform, and we know we have a
responsibility to protect them, which is why I'm making the
following commitments to you and to all our users. Number One,
we will keep safety, particularly for teenagers, as a top
priority for US. Number two, we will firewall protected US
data from unwanted foreign access. Number Three, TikTok will remain
(33:57):
a place for free expression and will not be manipulated
by any government.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
TikTok's list of enemies was swelling that they had one
thing on their side, TikTokers. The AI algorithm had gotten
so good that it was delivering exactly what users wanted,
and even TikTokers began to notice.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Dude, it's like TikTok knows what I'm thinking twenty four
to seven.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
I'm serious.
Speaker 27 (34:22):
I was literally just talking about pizza, and now my
entire feed is full of pizza tiktoks.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
Okay, So I have this theory that the TikTok for
You page can literally read your mind.
Speaker 18 (34:31):
I swear this happens all the time, but this is
just the one instance.
Speaker 32 (34:34):
So I buy Nutella today.
Speaker 20 (34:35):
I never buy Nittella.
Speaker 29 (34:37):
And then I was just on my for you page,
trying to.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
Sleep thinking about it, and guess which video pops up
on that for you Newtella.
Speaker 32 (34:46):
I'm telling you if this happens daily.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
TikTok had an ever growing enemies list. Parents, child advocates,
anti communist, Silicon Valley executives, national security hawks, free speech advocates,
and journalists all wanted the Chinese social media app band.
Lawmakers couldn't get legislation over the Hump to banish TikTok
because there was a large number of Democrat holdouts in Washington,
(35:11):
d C. It appeared TikTok had survived again, that is
until a horrific event hit the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Welcome back to red pilled America. So as twenty twenty
three progressed, TikTok was taking fire from all directions. Its
growing list of enemies all wanted to ban the Chinese
social media app, but lawmakers couldn't get legislation over the
Hump to banish TikTok because there was a large number
of Democrat holdouts in Washington, d C. It appeared TikTok
(35:47):
had survived again. That is until October seventh, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 33 (35:51):
We have breaking news out of Israel this morning, where
Hamas has launched a surprise attack within Israel's borders overnight,
first launching rockets from the Gaza Strip, then selling milliontons
into the streets of the southern part of Israel. Hundreds
of people have been injured, several have been killed, but
that number could be much higher.
Speaker 34 (36:11):
As we speak, Palestinian gunmen are inside Israeli cities and towns,
something we have never before seen on this scale, and
they are fighting running gun battles against Israeli ground forces. Hamas,
the major Palestinian militant group that controls Gaza, says they
have taken Israeli's hostage and they have taken them back
(36:33):
inside of Gaza.
Speaker 22 (36:35):
Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin NETANYAHUO declared the country was quote
at war. He said their enemy would pay an unprecedented price.
Israeli warplanes took aim at Gaza. Among the targets hit
this high rise, which was reduced to rubble. Hundreds have
been killed on both sides, and it is a sharp
escalation of violence for a region that bears the scars
(36:58):
of centuries of conflict.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
The region erupted in a seeming search for answer. Some
TikTokers began to research the conflict, and when they did,
a Letter to America went viral on the platform.
Speaker 35 (37:10):
This morning, I read Letter to America, which is Osama
bin Laden's letter to America explaining why he attacked Americans,
and I am ashamed to say that I not only
have never read this letter, but I didn't even know
this letter existed.
Speaker 1 (37:29):
The letter was Osama bin Laden's stated reason for attacking
America on nine to eleven, and at the top of
his list of reasons, he allegedly wrote.
Speaker 7 (37:37):
Why are we fighting and opposing you? The answer is
very simple, because you attacked us and continue to attack us.
You attacked us in Palestine.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
The letter went on to state that one of the
primary reasons for the nine to eleven attacks was America's
policies in Palestine. The letter had been lost to the
death pan of history, but when some TikTokers began researching
the history of the Israeli Palestine conflict, they found it
and its contents shocked them. It began posting their thoughts
on TikTok.
Speaker 35 (38:09):
So I just read a letter to America and I
will never look at life the same.
Speaker 34 (38:15):
I need you to stop what you're doing and go
read a letter to America.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
So this is insane.
Speaker 6 (38:19):
I just read Osama bin Laden's letter to America.
Speaker 28 (38:23):
It's actually so mind to me.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
The TikTok videos went viral, sending conservative media personalities into
an outrage.
Speaker 29 (38:32):
Get off your iPhone, pay attention to your child, look
at your kid's lessons, do some parenting if you're going
to bother having a child, and stop indoctrinating your own children.
To those of you who are on the.
Speaker 32 (38:43):
Left, Unfortunately, to an entire generation raised on the idea
that success equals oppression and failure equals being oppressed, it's
not obvious at all that Osama bin Laden was evil.
In fact, he was apparently an aggrieved victim with a
shockingly cogent case against the West. That is according to
a bevy of new videos trending on TikTok of TikTok
generation Americans reading Osama ban Laden's letter to America.
Speaker 1 (39:05):
Over the weeks that followed the October seventh attacks, pro
Palestinian posts began to rise on TikTok. It wasn't the
only social media platform that experienced this phenomenon. Both x
and YouTube included posts that were sympathetic to Palestinians, but
TikTok had a few things working against it. It was
already in Washington, d C's crosshairs, and it had the
(39:25):
attention of the youth. It reflected the future of America,
and some wanted to nip that pro Palestinian narrative in
the bud enter. The ADL, the Anti Defamation League, is
a powerful pro Israel lobby in Washington.
Speaker 23 (39:40):
D C.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
And the director of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, realized that
they had a problem on their hands. He began organizing
teleconferences with supporters, and an audio of one meeting eventually
leaked the.
Speaker 23 (39:58):
Young and all a monomery of a young people booking
at Amasa Masner when he to find and jogging Len
and terrifying Lei. And so we we have a maritalk
problem and an air problem in our community. To point
the fame Brain that gave up Tagline, the fame Braine
(40:20):
that gave us all these other amazing innovation aid to
putter energy towards this like cool craft.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
Behind the scenes, the pro Israel lobby began pressuring Washington
DC to do something about TikTok, and it wasn't long
before Senator Josh Holly pulled on this thread to wage
a new attack on the Chinese owned platform.
Speaker 12 (40:41):
More than fifty percent of young Americans gen Z between
the ages of eighteen and twenty four believed that Hamasa's
murder of civilians was justified. These are the same people
who are going on TikTok to get their news, to
get their information, to be influenced, and they certainly are
being influenced. Media reports have annalog is the prevalence of
(41:04):
anti Israel, anti Semitic pro Hamas content on TikTok is
really quite astounding. Just take a look at the trending
hashtags stand with Palestine two hundred and eighty five million
views impressions. By contrast, Stand with Israel far far less
sixty four million, And this doesn't actually begin to tell
(41:27):
the story.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
In January twenty twenty four, Senator Holly summoned the CEO
of TikTok back before the Senate.
Speaker 12 (41:45):
You are owned by a Chinese Communist company or a
company based in China. The editor in chief of your
parent company is a Communist Party secretary. Your company has
been surveilling Americans for years. According to leaked audio for
more than eighty internal TikTok meetings. China based employees of
(42:06):
your company have repeatedly accessed non public data of United
States citizens. Your company has tracked journalists improperly gaining access
to their IP addresses user data in an attempt to
identify whether they're writing negative stories about you. Your platform
is basically an espionage arm for the Chinese Communist Party.
Why should you not be banned in the United States
(42:27):
of America?
Speaker 30 (42:28):
Senator I disagree with your characterization many of what you
have said. We have explained in a lot of detail.
TikTok is used by one hundred and seventy million Americans.
Speaker 12 (42:36):
I know when every single one of those Americans are
in danger from the fact that you track their keystrokes,
you track their app usage, you track their location data,
and we know that all of that information can be
accessed by Chinese employees who are subject to the dictats
of the Chinese Communist Party. According to the Wall Street
Journal report from just yesterday, even now bitedance workers without
(42:59):
going through official channels, have access to the private information
of American citizen up pointing from the article, private information
of American citizens, including their birthday, their IP address, and more.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
That's now, Senator.
Speaker 30 (43:10):
As we know, the media doesn't always.
Speaker 23 (43:12):
Get it right.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
The TikTok CEO claimed that the company had since spent
billions of dollars to build security walls to protect Americans data.
But Senator Holly wasn't having.
Speaker 12 (43:23):
It, mister Chew. It's not protected at all. It's subject
to Communist Chinese Party inspection and review. Your app unlike
anybody else sitting here, and Heaven knows, I've got problems
with everybody here, but your app, unlike any of those,
is subject to the control and inspection of a foreign
hostile government that has actively trying to track the information
(43:44):
and whereabouts of every American that they get their hands on.
Your app ought to be banned in the United States
of America for the security of this country.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
After a roughly four and a half year battle, the
right combination of groups at just the right time had gathered,
and in late April twenty twenty four, a TikTok divestri
b Band Bill easily passed in cong.
Speaker 11 (44:03):
On this vote, the yea's are eighty, the nays are nineteen.
Three fifths of the senators duly chosen and then sworn
having voted in the affirmative. The motion is agreed.
Speaker 1 (44:14):
To a litany of conspiracy theories for why TikTok was
banned flooded American airwaves. Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson believed China
was using TikTok to spy on Americans.
Speaker 18 (44:26):
The CCP is using TikTok as a spyware tool on Americans.
Speaker 14 (44:30):
They're weaponizing our kids.
Speaker 24 (44:31):
They have spread misinformation.
Speaker 1 (44:33):
Conservative media commentator Candice Owans thought it was the pro
Israel lobby is.
Speaker 36 (44:38):
Apac ADL shoving through laws through Congress, John Green Black
getting caught. You know, if you want to talk about
not giving into Jewish conspiracies, John Green Black getting caught
on the ADL on the hot mic talking about how
we got to get rid of TikTok, and then tomorrow
it gets passed through Congress.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
And progressive commentator Chank Yuger believed it was Silicon Valley.
Speaker 12 (44:56):
Here's what I believe, the social media players, including Facebook,
giving them tons of money to band TikTok.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
The theories were elaborate, backed by passion and some facts,
but none of them are accurate by themselves. Congress's theory
that TikTok could be used by Chinese spyware was likely true,
but wasn't definitively proven in a court of law. But
even if it was true, national security wasn't the only
reason for TikTok being on the brink of banishment. Candice
(45:23):
Owen's theory that it was the Israeli lobby was inadvertently
backed by a Republican insider. In a public discussion with
Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln, former GOP Senator Mitt Romney
openly expressed that TikTok was being taken down because of
its pro Palestinian posts.
Speaker 9 (45:39):
Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for US
to shut down potentially TikTok or other entities of that nature.
If you look at the postings on TikTok and the
number of mentions of Palestinian's relative to other social media sites,
it's overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
But that alone was not the reason TikTok was brought
to the brink of banishment. The ADL has tried unsuccessfully
to take down the X platform for years. Chenk Yuger's
theory that it was Silicon Valley had some validity. It
was Mark Zuckerberg that was the first to ring the
alarm on TikTok. But Silicon Valley alone couldn't have taken
down TikTok. It had already tried and failed. It wasn't
(46:20):
just one of these groups that brought TikTok to the
brink of banishment. It took them each to jump on
the train until one event provided the opportunity for the
collective to deliver the crippling blow. This is how these
types of events occur. What looks like an evil conspiracy
is usually just a collective of groups coming together at
just the right time to reach a goal. Take, for example,
(46:42):
the first conspiracy that Americans are introduced to the existence
of Santa Claus. When a child first learns the truth
behind this chubby old man from the North Pole. They
blamed their conspiring parents for the sad revelation, but in reality,
it took a much larger group of conspirators to pull
off one of the most successful conspiracies in American history.
(47:02):
Sam was brought to life in New York City in
the early eighteen hundreds, when the Christmas season wasn't a
calm family time, but instead resembled a rowdy Mardi Gras.
Loud and drunken mobs used the time to flip the
tables on authority and harass the elites. Christmas Time in
the early eighteen hundreds was at times chaotic ruled by
(47:23):
a degenerate mob. So, in an attempt to calm the season,
a group of New York elites transformed the fifteen hundred
year old Saint Nicholas to what we know as Santa Claus,
and he was used as a tool by a group
of conspirators to calm the season. Law enforcements saw Santa
Claus as the perfect tool to calm the rowdy streets.
Product makers and retailers saw the jolly old soul as
(47:45):
a perfect vehicle to sell their goods, and parents saw
Santa Claus as the perfect weapon to incentivize good behavior
in their kids. Much of American society embraced the winner
gift giver, but it wasn't until the Church realized Saint
Nick could be used to create a family friendly day
of warship that Santa Claus became embedded into American culture.
(48:06):
The right collection of conspirators came together to make Santa
a reality. Each one with their own reason to join
the conspiracy. TikTok had become the first Chinese social media
app to crack the global market, so Silicon Valley went
on the attack to protect its dominance. The short video
app truly was and is a national security threat as
(48:27):
well as a threat to the health of America's youth,
so politicians and parents moved to ban it, and tik
Tok was allowing unauthorized political conversations, leading to pressure from
foreign powers. To this collective of groups, it had to go.
With trust in American institutions at an all time low,
no one believed the official reason behind Washington's attack on TikTok,
(48:49):
and some began to fill the void with conspiracy theories
that countered the narrative of their leaders and its a
reasonable response to a media that has, on many occasions
been caught spreading a false narrative.
Speaker 37 (49:00):
The Trump campaign is accusing Twitter and facebok Book of
censorship after the social media companies blocked the spread of
an unverified story about former Vice President Joe Biden's son
and the laptop allegedly full of his old emails.
Speaker 15 (49:14):
More than fifty former intelligence officials released a statement that
the laptop had all the classic earmarks of a Russian
information operation.
Speaker 1 (49:31):
Which leads us back to the questions what is a
conspiracy theory and why have they become so common? The
current textbook definition of a conspiracy theory is a belief
that some secret, influential organization is responsible for an event
or phenomenon, but that definition is outdated Today. A conspiracy
theory is an explanation that goes against the authorized narrative.
(49:55):
As a result, the phrase is often wielded as a
smear by the same people paid to keep the narrative alive.
Conspiracy theories have become so common for one simple fact.
Americans have lost trust in our institutions. The official reason
behind Washington, DC's attack on TikTok is that it posed
a national security threat, but lack of trust in Americans
(50:15):
institutions has led to a litany of conspiracy theories challenging
that official position. It was Facebook, it was the deep state, No,
it was foreign powers. Each of these conspiracy theories were wrong,
but if you put them together, you get closer to
the truth. However, these conspiracy theories would have never risen
if people had trust in our institutions. TikTok could have
(50:35):
been defaned by any of the numerous laws already on
the books, and there are plenty. But instead, Washington DC
passed a law that gave more power to Washington d C.
Speaker 10 (50:46):
What we've authorized here is not a TikTok ban. It
is a sweeping new federal power to ban foreign adversary
controlled applications. I believe that eventually what they will do
is try and push Elon to divest X.
Speaker 1 (50:59):
If our leaders truly want to stop the spread of
conspiracy theories, perhaps they should focus on gaining back trust
through their actions, because many Americans have learned a little
trick about how to spot the truth, and that is
watch not what they say, but what they do.
Speaker 19 (51:15):
Bottom Vice President, are you on TikTok?
Speaker 32 (51:17):
Well, I've heard that recently.
Speaker 36 (51:18):
I've been on the for you page, so I thought
i'd get on here myself.
Speaker 2 (51:23):
Red Pilled America is an iHeartRadio original podcast. It's owned
and produced by Patrick Carrelci and me Adriana Cortez for
Informed Ventures.
Speaker 23 (51:31):
Now.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
You can get ad free access to our entire catalog
of episodes by becoming a backstage subscriber. To subscribe, just
visit redpilled america dot com and could join in the
top menu. Thanks for listening,
Hosts And Creators
Adryana Cortez
Patrick Courrielche
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