In a recently released report, two former military and intelligence experts warn that China is using TikTok to collect data on young users and disseminate communist ideology. According to Newsmax, the open-source report examines the bill signed recently by President Biden that requires TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the American operation to an owner not linked to the government or be banned in the U.S.

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The report uncovers that the Chinese Communist Party plans to use TikTok’s short videos and other features to influence young people in the areas of politics and military support actions – most likely a propaganda initiative in China’s self-proclaimed 100-year war against America. “The recent findings by the Justice Department align with our research, which reveals that the CCP strategically targets Americans, including college students, to push its ideological and political narratives,” report co-author L.J. Eads told The Washington Times. He added, “The CCP’s efforts to leverage platforms like TikTok to gather sensitive data and manipulate content reflect its broader goal of using discourse power to influence global public opinion.”

Last week, government lawyers for the Department of Justice wrote to the federal appeals court in Washington that TikTok and its owners used an internal web suite called Larkt to gather and send sensitive data directly from TikTok employees to ByteDance engineers to be stored on Chinese servers.

The intelligence report by co-authors Eads and Ryan Clarke supports the notion that TikTok is an integral part of China’s war against the U.S. It states that the app supports three key elements of that war: public opinion warfare, psychological warfare, and legal warfare, commonly known as “lawfare.”

On Friday, August 2, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission sued TikTok, alleging that it violated children’s online privacy laws by allowing children to create accounts without parental consent. The lawsuit is being challenged by, among others, the ACLU, citing concerns about free speech.

Why This Matters

It might be easy to dismiss this as unimportant in light of everything else that’s going on. However, it behooves us to be vigilant about everything related to an all-out global war disguised as peace initiatives by a nation whose ideology is diametrically opposed to freedom and Christianity. The collected data and the influence exerted through apps like TikTok will eventually be used to exert power over its users to serve the Chinese hegemony. Already, we have a government in place that is sympathetic to China and sees no harm in looking at Chinese ideas of promoting “good citizenship,” like its social credit system. According to an article in The Hill, published in 2021, Great Britain is developing a health credit system based on the Chinese social credit system, and U.S. businesses have begun their own versions of a social credit system. They are all interlocking parts of China’s ultimate goal: to rid the world of the American way by any means necessary since the U.S. is the biggest adversary of communist ideology.

The spiritual ramifications of this, however, run even deeper than that. We recognize Satan’s “bait and hook” system, which he often uses in his deceptive work around the globe. After all, our battle is not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12).

The bait is the funny, attractive short videos from around the world that anyone can upload and view. The hook is in the ideology that can be promoted through uploaded videos from unknown sources and users’ data collected and stored on servers in China. It has the potential to expand the technological influence that can easily be used to control large numbers of people and spread propaganda among them – the kind of stuff a future Antichrist can use to control the world’s population and force them to worship him (see Revelation 13).

How To Pray

We continue to pray that what is hidden in darkness will come to light! In this case, we pray that this lawsuit will be successful and that its evidence and testimonies will fully expose what China is doing covertly. Here are some specific items:

1. Pray that the evidence will be presented clearly and be received as a reason for the United States to ban TikTok or bring its American Operations under the control of a private company without ties to the Chinese government.
2. Pray that the U.S. will decide to join the growing number of countries that have banned TikTok altogether.
3. Pray that the Lord will raise American and Christian developers to provide a viable alternative to TikTok.
4. Pray for the hand of God to fully expose all aspects of China’s war on Christianity and the free world and thwart the Enemy’s plans to dominate the world through them.

Almighty God, we pray that You bring what is hidden in darkness to light through the lawsuits against TikTok. Expose and thwart Satan’s attempt at totalitarian domination of the world and brainwashing young minds against the gospel and Christian values in our culture and laws. Open the eyes of the public to the dangers of what is happening and ignite in them a passionate desire to seek Christ and defend freedom and integrity. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Share your prayers about TikTok and the CCP in the comments.

Remco Brommet is a pastor, spiritual-growth teacher, and prayer leader with over 40 years of experience in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the U.S. He was born and raised in the Netherlands and pastored his first church in Amsterdam. He moved to the U.S. in 1986. He and his wife, Jennifer, live north of Atlanta. When not writing books, he blogs at www.deeperlifeblog.com and assists his wife as a content developer and prayer coordinator for True Identity Ministries. Jennifer and Remco are passionate about bringing people into a deeper relationship with Christ. Photo Credit: Solen Feyissa on Unsplash.