Virtually any popular social media platform is an intelligence threat "in theory." Personally, I think TikTok has very little redeeming value for viewers or creators and I think its extreme focus on fostering addictive usage preys on some users to their detriment.
However, I also also think trying to shut it down based speculative claims of being an intelligence threat are a bad idea and would set a terrible precedent.
> speculative claims of being an intelligence threat are a bad idea and would set a terrible precedent
I agree with that statement, but one must admit there's some hypocrisy on the part of China, given they have blanket bans on YouTube and Instagram which provide their own competing offerings. If China lifted those bans there could be no claims about TikTok enabling some asymmetric advantage in espionage or propaganda, and if they don't, China can't claim the US is doing anything they aren't already.
China does not ban YouTube or Instagram because they're foreign, They have some very onerous rules about censorship, which I disagree with, but are applied equally to all companies operating in China, including Chinese ones.
A good example is that google is banned but bing is not, and tiktok is also banned in China because they don't follow those laws.
That's the sanitized on-the-surface naive explanation of why China wants to control the social media (and search) landscape. The 'laws' you refer to are that Google was required to take down things that were unfavorable towards the Chinese government. So quite obviously the Chinese government simply doesn't want to be undermined by foreign entities, right?
This isn't too far from the US governments motivation to not have it's political power undermined by a foreign entity, and the propaganda situation is different between a democracy and an autocracy. It's politically impossible (and would be inconsistent) to ask specifically TikTok to remove all political content that could either bolster support from one party, or detract from another, as the US has the tenet of free speech enshrined in constitution. But instead of making up some nonsense law that social media companies must yield to coarse-grained censorship by the government, the US are at least being honest about their intentions.
The only reason they have to ban Tiktok is that it is chinese owned. I think it is important for the world to have access to media and social media outside the influences of either western countries or China as looking at what has happened in Pakistan where Tiktok has allowed for democracy advocates to inform people whereas western social media some advocates have been banned or blocked from western social media like Youtube because of political pressure from western countries. The army chief of Pakistan meets the UK army chief and suddenly an ex pakistan army officer is raided and arrested in London and blocked on youtube.
However, I also also think trying to shut it down based speculative claims of being an intelligence threat are a bad idea and would set a terrible precedent.