The US Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a warning against a Chinese-owned social media platform, citing national security concerns.
On Tuesday, FBI Director Chris Wray warned the public against Chinese-owned TikTok, claiming that there’s a possibility that China would use the platform to infringe the country’s national security.
The U.S. operations of TikTok reportedly raised national security concerns and informed the public of the risk that the Chinese government “could harness the video-sharing app to influence users or control their devices,” Reuters reported.
In a statement released by Wray while talking to the US lawmakers, he revealed that the risks “include “the possibility that the Chinese government could use [TikTok] to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations.”
He also added that China could also use the popular app, owned by ByteDance in an attempt to “control software on millions of devices,” giving it the opportunity to “technically compromise” those devices.
Moreover, the FBI director also noted that Chinese companies are required to essentially “do whatever the Chinese government wants them to in terms of sharing information or serving as a tool of the Chinese government. And so that’s plenty of reason by itself to be extremely concerned.”
In an exclusive report published by Reuters, it was revealed that “the U.S. government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews U.S. acquisitions by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, in 2020 ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that U.S. user data could be passed on to China’s communist government. CFIUS and TikTok have been in talks for months aiming to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of TikTok’s more than 100 million users.”
Following Wray’s controversial warning, a spokesperson for Tiktok released a statement, claiming “as Director Wray specified in his remarks, the FBI’s input is being considered as part of our ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Government. While we can’t comment on the specifics of those confidential discussions, we are confident that we are on a path to fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns.”
Last September, amid the controversy, Vanessa Pappas, Tiktok executive told the US lawmakers that TikTok was making “progress toward a final agreement with the U.S. government to further safeguard U.S user data and fully address U.S. national security interests.”
