A commissioner of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has renewed calls for Apple and Google to boot out the TikTok app from their app stores over reports detailing national security risks with the short video sharing platform's parent company ByteDance, CNN reported.
TikTok Parent Firm ByteDance 'Beholden' to Chinese Government, Says FCC Commissioner
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote letters to the CEOs of Apple and Google on June 24, emphasizing that ByteDance was 'beholden" to the Chinese government and is required by Chinese law "to comply with [Chinese government] surveillance demands."
Carr cited a BuzzFeed news report that claimed ByteDance's Chinese staff had accessed US TikTok users' data on several occasions, These allegations showed how TikTok is not complying "with the policies that both of your companies require every app to adhere to."
In the letter, Carr said there are a number of other reports that show "concerning evidence and determinations regarding TikTok's data practices", such as cases discovered by researchers where the app bypassed all safety nets on Android and iOS devices to gain access to private information. Carr went as far as to describe TikTok as a "risk to national security".
In a tweet, Carr said that TikTok is "not just another video app." He added, "That's the sheep's clothing," and added, "It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing."
TikTok is not just another video app.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) June 28, 2022
That’s the sheep’s clothing.
It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing.
I’ve called on @Apple & @Google to remove TikTok from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices. pic.twitter.com/Le01fBpNjn
Carr asked the companies to either remove TikTok from their app stores by July 8 or explain why they did not intend to do so.
TikTok: BuzzFeed Report 'Misleading'
In a statement, TikTok called the BuzzFeed report "misleading" as both Apple and Google have yet to respond to the FCC commissioner's letter.
TikTok said it has engineering teams around the world that "employ access controls like encryption and security monitoring" in securing user data, and an access approval process managed by the company's US-based security team. TikTok engineers from outside the U.S. can be granted access to U.S. user data on an "as-needed" basis under the aforementioned strict controls.
BuzzFeed, meanwhile, stands by its report that US user data was accessed by China-based TikTok employees far more frequently than previously known, and added in a statement that TikTok itself confirmed it in its own statement.
U.S. officials have voiced concerns over national security risks that Chinese counterparts could easily access U.S. user data.
Carr's request seems odd because the FCC has no clear jurisdiction over the content of app stores and it merely regulates the national security space through its mandated authority to grant communications licenses to companies.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deals by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, ordered ByteDance in 2020 to divest its TikTok interest because of fears that U.S. user data could be relayed to China's communist government.
To allay these fears, TikTok said it had migrated U.S. user data to Oracle Corp servers.
