US says China can spy with TikTok. It spies on world with Google

The US debate on the risks posed by TikTok has paid little attention to the privacy rights of non-Americans who rely on US tech firms like Google and Meta [File: Florence Lo/Reuters]

Taipei, Taiwan – During a five-hour grilling of the chief executive of TikTok last week, United States lawmakers railed against the possibility of China using the wildly popular, partly Chinese-owned app to spy on Americans.

They did not mention how the US government itself uses US tech companies that effectively control the global internet to spy on everyone else.