Federal Communications Commissioner urges Apple and Alphabet to remove TikTok from app stores. According to a letter to the companies’ CEO, FCC Commissioner Brendan Karma said that TikTok poses an “unacceptable security risk” because it collects large amounts of user data accessed by employees in China.
“TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, an organization affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party that is required by Chinese law to meet PRC surveillance requirements,” the letter said Tuesday.
TikTok is in trouble with the government over its parent’s ties to China. In 2020, former President Donald Trump issued an executive order demanding the seizure of ownership of the ByteDance app. He threatened to close the company’s US operations if the company refused to comply (the order was blocked by a federal court). The TikTok audit was hushed up when President Joe Biden took office, but the company was still plagued by legal troubles. TikTok agreed to pay $92 million in 2021 to settle lawsuits alleging the app secretly leaked large amounts of user data about children in China that could be used to track user activity.
TikTok refused to share user data with the Chinese government.
In response to concerns that the Chinese government is deploying user data weapons, TikTok announced in June that its US user traffic is now being routed to country-based Oracle servers. The change was made after that. BuzzFeed News It is reported that ByteDance Beijing employees have repeatedly accessed the personal data of US users.
Karma, however, said that moving servers is not enough.
“TikTok has long argued that its US user data is stored on US servers, and yet these notions do not provide protection from access from Beijing,” the letter read. “Actually, TikTok’s statement that ‘100% of US consumer traffic goes to Oracle’ says nothing about where that data can be accessed.
The FCC’s Republican commissioner said TikTok violates policies dictated by Apple and Google’s app stores that include user data. He cites Apple’s instructions that the developer “must provide access to information about how and where the data is located.” [of an individual] They will be used” and “Data collected from apps can only be shared with third parties to improve the app or serve advertising”. From the Google app store, Carr claims that TikTok violated rules that require developers to disclose app access, collection, use, and sharing.
TikTok said in a statement that it “would be happy to work with lawmakers to correct the registry.” BuzzFeedconfusing information.
“Like many global companies, TikTok has engineering teams around the world,” the statement reads. “We use access controls such as encryption and security monitoring to protect user data, and our US-based security team oversees the access verification process. TikTok has always argued that our engineers outside the US, including China, can gain access to US customer data as needed under this strict control.
TikTok usage has increased to over a billion active users during the pandemic. In the first quarter of 2022, it was downloaded over 19 million times.
Apple and Alphabet did not respond to a request for comment.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
