FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that he’s “extremely concerned” that China could weaponize data collected through TikTok either by influencing users or controlling their devices.
Wray said application programming interfaces, or APIs, that ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, embeds in the videos are a national security concern because China could use them to “control data collection of millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which can be used for influence operations.”
“China’s fast-hacking program is the world’s largest, and they have stolen more of Americans’ personal and business data than every other nation combined,” Wray said.
The White House is conducting a security review after Joe Biden dropped a ban on the program that Donald Trump tried to put in place in 2020. Trump was unsuccessful in getting Walmart and Oracle to take over the U.S. segment of the company and take responsibility for handling TikTok’s U.S. user data and content moderation. Legal challenges to Trump’s ban also helped kill it.
Now, it looks like Trump was on to something and Biden will be forced to act to protect U.S. citizens and our national security.
ByteDance and TikTok have repeatedly claimed they have not and would not turn over TikTok user data to the Chinese government, but national security experts have raised concerns about China’s 2017 national intelligence law, which requires all Chinese companies to assist Chinese intelligence services when asked.
The Chinese government was furious about Wray’s comments.
“Spreading disinformation and then using it to hobble Chinese companies has become a go-to tool used by the U.S. government. China is firmly against this,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Thursday. “The U.S. should act more responsibly, and take more credible steps to respect and observe the international rules that emphasize fairness, openness, and non-discrimination.”
Related: Chinese State Media Pointedly Excludes Biden From List of Key World Leaders Xi Met With
China has never — never — done anything in international business that involves “fairness, openness, and non-discrimination.” They shamelessly hack our companies, steal anything that isn’t nailed down, and piously rail against the United States when we complain.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) wrote last week that “TikTok is a major threat to U.S. national security. Yet Biden is encouraging greater engagement with the platform by directly courting TikTok influencers. Furthermore, reports suggest that he is nearing a deal that would authorize TikTok’s continued operation in the United States without any change in ownership.”
“Unless TikTok and its algorithm can be separated from Beijing, the app’s use in the United States will continue to jeopardize our country’s safety and pave the way for a Chinese-influenced tech landscape here,” Rubio and Gallagher said. “This is why we’re introducing legislation which would ban TikTok and other social media companies that are effectively controlled by the CCP from operating in the United States.”
TikTok is on almost 87 million devices in the United States alone. There is going to be fierce pushback from those who benefit from TikTok as well as those who want to see the app used for nefarious purposes. Any ban initiated by Biden will be met with legal challenges that will allow the app to stay in use for years.
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