[dudus]

Everything TikTok is usually linked to malice and espionage from China. If this is a common industry practice at the very least you give it the benefit of the doubt. It doesn't make it ok. It just makes it not automatically linked to international cyber warfare.

[smolder]

The incidents that might qualify as cyber warfare could also just be looked at as the same struggle for power on a different front, compared to economics. It can't be lost on Chinese leaders how valuable it is to the US to have so much money and data flowing through its domestic tech companies. Tech companies can't cross the line into cyber warfare themselves and get a pass on it, but they do play a role in it.