‘One of China’s most useful strategic assets’: Tech policy expert on TikTok and national security

Tim Wu is a long time tech and antitrust scholar and worked on competition policy on President Biden 's National Economic Council .

Wu says the TikTok law protects Americans from foreign adversary controlled applications.

Wu : China has said that, look by dance TikTok , it is not for sale, and yet no one seems to be taking anyone up on that offer.

There's no way everyone's going to be happy with TikTok , professor says.

China has the upper hand right now because they're just in a situation they can provoke chaos.

The challenge is I don't think the Chinese government will hand over the algorithm under any condition.

Having TikTok on your phone gives the TikTok app access to everything you're doing and all your contacts, but also a lot of information about who your friends are.

Professor Wu : "An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms" Wu : For a long time, tech wanted nothing to do with Washington . They just said stay away. The new trend is to say, OK, we want to be like best friends with the White House for all these reasons and be there.