Enforce the Pompeo test on TikTok

What are we to make of President Trump’s decision to approve conditionally the deal that would allow a Chinese digital Trojan Horse known as TikTok to continue recruiting users in the United States?

The good news is that deal-makers Oracle and Walmart say they can prevent the app from vacuuming up private data and other sensitive information from many millions of U.S. cell phones and other digital devices.

The bad news is that the all-important algorithms that power TikTok may remain subject to the dictates of the Chinese Communist Party and, therefore, a threat.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has pledged, however, that “We will ensure that that firewall is real, that the protection is serious, that the data resides in places that aren’t connected to the Chinese information system.” Anything less is unacceptable and must result in TikTok being banned.

This is Frank Gaffney.

Mike Pompeo by Gage Skidmore  is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0