It is absolutely protectionist.

I am not sure if the national security claims are valid or not; I could see that going either way. Just having all that information could pose a problem, but the CCP is sophisticated enough to get that info through other means, too.

All that being said, Facebook and Google are absolutely happy about this. They have spent billions trying to replicate TikTok’s algorithm, and are failing. They are also lobbying congress to do nothing about data protection and privacy. It’s hypocritical for the US to only target TikTok.

But, it is also true that young people don’t vote, so TikTok is probably not the best audience for election disinformation.