Tiktok in court; spy games on LinkedIn; Wolf Warrior watch
Hello, and welcome to China Influence Monitor, a weekly newsletter published by CEPA and Coda Story and edited by me, Edward Lucas. We track the westward footprint of China’s influence operations, and their effects on politics, economies, societies and alliances across Central Asia, the Caucasus, Russia and Europe.
TECH TIDE TURNS
For years, tech products have been among the Beijing authorities’ most effective vectors of influence. Admittedly, they are cheap, convenient and often fun. But they are also intrusive — and dangerous.
Take this lawsuit against TikTok, for example. The former British Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield is suing the popular social video app on behalf of 3.5 million under-13s. She argues that it “takes children's personal information, including phone numbers, videos, exact location and biometric data,” without gaining consent or explaining what it is doing. That breaches the EU’s GDPR data-protection rules (which have been incorporated into UK law post-Brexit).