Resisting the Appetizing Pull of TikTok and Temu

Turning a Blind Eye on Chinese-Owned Companies

If my knowledge of TikTok and Temu were a flaky Napolean, I’d barely get past the frosted icing. Today, I’m going to break through to the bottom of the dessert plate, so reach for the forks and sweet tooth, because here are the ingredients behind these inviting apps.

Powdered Sugar

TikTok has been around since September 2016. I don’t think there’s a person in the United States who has never clicked on one of the videos that encompass every genre one can (and can’t) think of. Celebrities with accounts include Gordon Ramsey, the Rock and (gulp) Taylor Swift. I personally held Valerie Bertinelli’s hand through my laptop during her compelling TikTok video discussing the mental cruelty of her now ex-husband.

C’mon. How can TikTok be that bad?

The dark side behind the laughter and tears (not to mention, oftentimes disgusting) is so nefarious and threatening to us as a country that the present administration is taking steps to ban TikTok citing it as a national security risk. Yet Americans take these words very lightly.

Speaking of security risks, even former President Donald Trump used an executive order on August 20, 2020 to ban TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps. This was quickly thrown out months later by the Federal Court.

First Flaky Buttery Layers

With the breaking news cycle going at harrowing speeds, it’s easy to see why we glossed over Congress questioning TikTok’s CEO in March 2023. President Biden was urging TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the company or face a ban.

With bipartisan support from both parties, lawmakers pressed for action. U.S. national security officials say TikTok’s operations in the U.S. pose a threat, arguing the Chinese Communist Party can use the app — and the wide range of data it collects from users — to surveil Americans and various government institutions.

That’s as bad as having confidential documents sitting toilet-side at Mar-A-Lago! Unfortunately, stopping TikTok’s invasive weaponry is difficult.

For example, there’s the First Amendment and people’s civil rights to watch what they want on their phone screens. Because technology is new, amendments protecting the consumer and privacy laws need to be rewritten to catch up. The government would most likely lose any First Amendment case.

Second, ByteDance is a $4 billion company. At this point, only companies like Amazon, Meta or Microsoft could afford to buy them out. What’s stopping them are complicated anti-trust laws, which prevents companies from price colluding or creating monopolies.

James Lewis, of the Center for Strategies and International Studies told Politico: “All roads lead to court. ByteDance has tons of money, they’ll hire an army of lawyers. And this will be fought out.”

The Biden Administration is actively working to curtail Chinese espionage by rewording a 30-year old amendment (The Berman Act) to give it more teeth in this battle; as well as making headway with The Restrict Act. These strategies may not take full hold, but could be an opening for TikTok to not profit from American entities.

What are alternatives to TikTok?

Final Layer to the Creamy Custard

There are various apps like Clash, Triller, Huddles and Dubsmash vying to take over the 1 billion active monthly users of TikTok (2022). Yet, it’s the equivalent of what a Post or Threads is to X (formerly Twitter) or Instagram.

House Energy and Commerce chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers stated back in March, “TikTok surveils us all and the Chinese Communist Party is able to use this as a tool to manipulate America as a whole.” She added: “We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values.”

It’s possible that users could come together to manipulate TikTok’s earnings by banning it for various 24-hour time spans. Asking any user to go cold turkey, I believe, is just setting Americans up for failure. But less usage of the app that cites “trends start here” could make a serious dent.

The Custard and Beyond

Like the willful blindness in thinking a Napolean has no effect on our waistlines, let’s take a bite out of Temu’s app. This website containing shopping discounts has so much bait on their lines, one has to see that it’s too good to be true, right? Yet millions of Americans have made Temu (pronounced tee-moo) a discount shopping app, only second in popularity to Amazon.

Temu's Parent Company, PDD Holdings, is headquartered in Shanghai, China. It’s a Cayman Islands company with subsidiaries primarily registered in China and that are therefore subject to regulation by Chinese authorities. Despite a Chinese law banning citizens from investing in this kind of foreign technology company, PDD Holdings is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

According to Snopes, over 50 million Americans have downloaded Temu since it launched state-side in September 2022, after it gained traction with expensive Super Bowl ads promising to let you “shop like a billionaire.”

Obviously, Temu doesn’t make money from selling the products, but rather from the Chinese companies that advertise their wares on the site. Temu’s marketing is so bold, that people are paying almost nothing for items after they share a post or get friends to sign up for the app.

They’re doing something right as PDD is worth an estimated whopping $92 billion.

The Better Business Bureau has it rated as two stars out of five. Temu consists of cheaply made products and no name brands that one can purchase on the app. For instance, if it looks like a Dell Computer, it isn’t Dell; and you may not be getting the exact same product that is pictured.

According to a widely circulated March 23, 2023 USA Today column by Cyber Security writer Kim Komando, the app is a clever, pervasive digital stalker. As you shop, Temu monitors your activity on other apps, tracks your notifications and location and changes settings.

One reviewer complained that she ordered two items, which resulted in an excessive 49 emails.

Komando writes that it gets worse. Temu gains full access to all your contacts, calendars and photo albums, plus all your social media accounts, chats and texts. In other words, literally everything on your phone.

In a Facebook thread, Sally Chamberlain commented: “I gotta say I’ve bought quite a lot of products from Temu - I’m wearing a flannel shirt right now. For the most part, everything has been really nice! And orders come unbelievably fast.

I’m sure Amazon (and all the other big companies) know every single thing about us already, so what does it matter really?”

Amazon is an American company and won’t use our data to disrupt our lives, is my first thought.

However, Laura Barnhardt Corle responded by stating: “Like stealing your bank account, And in doing so, hack your Bank—and all your bank’s contacts, and do the same with your friends and ferret into their bank accounts…. China is a Communist Dictatorship—with expansion always on their mind…and they would Love for you to open the door for them!!

This is not at all like Facebook. This is Spyware disguised as an intriguing & tempting catalog. Don’t fall for it. It wants all your private information—your records; banking and health-even political party—where you shop-how you shop what you buy…

You ordered & nothing happened? How do you know? All those spam calls from all over the country are made with spyware—that particular kind of spyware is an algorithm that watches for when your computer or cell is idle or you’re asleep—then it uses YOUR computer to contact others.”

It’s not about the tempting low priced bargains—it’s about You and what they can learn from all of us.”

The Empty Dessert Plate

We can continue to indulge in our guilty pleasures, which is what China is literally banking on. We don’t really need that enticing cheaply made gadget or clothing any more than we need empty sugary calories. Ultimately, the Big Brother watching us from China is too huge of a price tag to pay. There has never been a better time to use the idiom - let the buyer beware.