A senator from the U.S., specifically from the Senate Intelligence Committee, is urging Apple and Google to remove TikToK from their app stores to avoid issues regarding national security.
Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet stated that the chinese social media app is “an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States” and highlighted the same concerns that pushed the federal government and more than half of US states to restrict TikTok from official devices and networks.
TikTok ban and its Chinese roots
TikTok or its parent company ByteDance has offices and employees in China. Apple CEO and Google CEO Time Cook and Sundar Pichai respectively said that China could use its power to force the parent company to divulge personal information including its U.S. customers.
China can also exercise its power to control what the US users see on the app, Bennet warned.
“We should accept the very real possibility that [China] could compel TikTok, via ByteDance, to use its influence to advance Chinese government interests,” Bennet wrote, “for example, by tweaking its algorithm to present Americans content to undermine U.S. democratic institutions or muffle criticisms” of China’s handling of Hong Kong, Taiwan or ethnic minorities.
The two tech giants Apple and Google did not give out an immediate response to this.
However, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said that “Unfortunately, Senator Bennet’s letter relies almost exclusively on misleading reporting about TikTok, the data we collect, and our data security controls,”
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will be testifying before a House committee in March to discuss the company’s data security policies.
Aside from this recent warning from Bennet, other US officials and entities have been writing and pushing for the ban of the Chinese social media app in the U.S.
There has been a lot of back and forth regarding national security concerns and negotiations in regard to this topic. But it has always been riddled with delays causing frustration.
Started his freelancing adventure in 2018 and began doing freelance Audio Engineering work and then started freelance writing a few years later.
Currently he writes for Gadget Pilipinas and formerly wrote for Grit.PH.
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