Is TikTok taking over our lives?

All the fuss right now is about TikTok. Run by a Chinese company headed by a very smart-looking young businessman, like a Chinese version of Mark Zuckerberg, it pours out videos every minute, some of which are bordering on the salacious but more often than not highlight confrontations between US police traffic patrol officers and innocent-sounding drivers stopped for no reason, as well as astounding traffic accidents and people doing stupid but often quite hilarious things. No harm really and fairly entertaining as long as it doesn't become addictive watching. But is it secretly a Chinese spying operation, a way for Beijing to insinuate itself into western social lives and tap into people's data? I haven't a clue but Shou Zi Chew, the Chinese CEO of ByteDance which owns TikTok, was claiming all innocence when he appeared before a very hostile congressional hearing in Washington yesterday. He sounded pretty convincing and tried to persuade the disbelieving congressional panel that the Chinese Communist Party was not in charge of TikTok. I think despite his earnestness he failed to win his argument that TikTok was not in fact a giant Beijing spying machine. The panel seemed intent on getting TikTok banned in the US. The truth is that every social media platform, whether run by the Chinese, Americans or whoever, is amazingly intrusive. In many ways they have taken over our lives. Millions of people get their news from social media as opposed to newspapers, TV or radio. But could TikTok really be spying on us all? If so, to what end? It reminds me of that story doing the rounds recently about giant Chinese cranes in the US and how they too could be spying platforms. It all sounds a bit ridiculous to me but what do I know?