Ashley Belanger:

The law requires the divestment “to end any ‘operational relationship’ between ByteDance and TikTok in the United States,” critics told the NYT. That could be a problem, since TikTok’s release makes it clear that ByteDance will maintain some control over the TikTok US app’s operations.

Is anyone truly concerned with the national security implications of TikTok surprised that ByteDance is, well, dancing around the particulars to maintain some form of access and control?

The Chinese Communist Party is not going to willingly give up access to American users or the influence it can exert on those users by way of controlling the algorithm of what they see.

If we were really serious about TikTok, we would have cut off its access entirely to the nation, but then the powers that be in this country haven’t been serious about national security in decades.

[Wave of the phin to Michael Tsai for linking to the Ars piece.]