I have never used tick tok so excuse my stuppidity
Discord being a US based company lets FBI access to its data much more directly. While TikTok still provides this data, them not being US based ticks off FBI, because there is the chance of chinese government interfering with the legitimacy of data that TikTok would provide. On China, the state has much more control over the companies than US.
The US can’t even deal with a billionaire buying up a social media platform and influence elections; but China can collapse any company’s success at a whim. Changing a legal data request from another country is certainly something they can do if China demands it.
China=Bad
TikTok does what every other social media app does (which is 100% legal in the US, thanks to corrupt leaders and law makers), but:China, so: Bad.
tiktok is in legal trouble for a totally different reason. They are collecting vast amounts of US citizen data and allowing the Chinese full access to it (which they made use of)
There is concern that ByteDance may be giving the Chinese government access to data on US citizens. It’s worth noting that no proof of this actually happening has surfaced.
But following media reports, it has also admitted that China-based employees had access to US users’ data, although the company insisted it was under strict and highly limited circumstances.
Employees of ByteDance might be Chinese, but they don’t work for the government. They work for ByteDance. I haven’t found anyone claiming to have proof that data in US citizens has left the company. Just fears that it could.
For the violated US regulation it doesn’t matter if it was the government. It says “foreign country or national thereof”: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2024/02/28/executive-order-on-preventing-access-to-americans-bulk-sensitive-personal-data-and-united-states-government-related-data-by-countries-of-concern/
