There are two requirements the US ruling class has for internet connected tech: surveillance opportunities and content distribution and censorship capabilities.

That’s why we saw the fuss about Huawei five years ago, and that’s why there’s been a fuss about TikTok over the last five years as well. Huawei isn’t a US military or intelligence adjacent or contracted company, so the NSA and Co can’t roll in and mandate backdoors into Huawei’s networking products. The TikTok available in the imperial core, while already being somewhat controlled by the US military-intelligence apparatus already, still doesn’t allow for enough surveillance and equally importantly doesn’t allow for enough content control. The US ruling class knows it’s losing the narrative war, and is trying everything it can to reign that in.

What politicians actually believe doesn’t really matter. Some have bathed in the kool-aid, others know it’s just theater. What really matters is what the capitalists believe, and they are pretty clear on what they have to do to maintain power.