The Chinese Communist Party has already designated Facebook, Google, Snapchat, Instagram, Youtube, etc as foreign intelligence threats even though a company like Snapchat has never been proven to work with the US government before, yet ByteDance has CCP party members working for it to ensure the company tows the party line.
Given that ByteDance is profitable, it can keep running Tik Tok at a loss to keep acquiring new users even when the retention rate is lower than any American platform by far. With the backing of ByteDance, Tik Tok does not need to be run as a startup, but rather it can be leveraged by the CCP the same way the CCP leverages every other major company: to advance the goals of China via propaganda, selective censorship, and economic mercantilism.
The biggest lie told by Tik Tok is that it cannot be influenced by the CCP. ByteDance's HQ is in Beijing and the company has various CCP members working in it. It sounds just like when Facebook said that it couldn't merge the backends of WhatsApp and Facebook.
I'm considering making a Youtube channel focused on this because it seems like no one in America realizes the threat that a totalitarian regime can impose once it gains a share of cultural primacy. Already the CCP is threatening the US congress and Swedish government with vague "consequences" for standing up against Chinese mafia tactics.