[srcreigh]

What other explanation is there for this other than some type of china-USA (or global) conspiracy?

I suppose it’s the threat of TikTok paving the way for non App Store deployments. Reducing power of the app stores.

Or maybe it’s US companies believing they can use permission systems to tame the information flow to TikTok servers.

[coldtea]

>What other explanation is there for this other than some type of china-USA (or global) conspiracy?

Perhaps the fact that every other major social company has been found of doing the same (Facebook and Google multiple times) and yet nothing happened to their apps, at best they got a "slap on the wrist" at times...

The focus on Tik-Tok is more about a shot in the US-China trade and geopolitical rivarly than because it's somehow unique

[srcreigh]

For me the geopolitics are a lot more adversarial than that. For ex can't use FB or Google in China why - its American espionage against Chinese citizens. The question is why America (via Apple/Google) are allowing TikTok to spy on American citizens.