Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) speaks on a cell phone after a vote the day after the capturing at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 25, 2022.
Joshua Roberts | Reuters
Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., urged the CEOs of Apple and Google to take away TikTok from their cell app shops instantly in a letter Thursday, citing widespread issues the Chinese authorities might entry data on Americans utilizing the app.
The request from Bennet, who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, highlights each the rising concern over TikTok’s potential nationwide safety dangers and the facility Apple and Google need to determine the type of apps which Americans can entry.
Bennet informed the CEOs of each companies that TikTok is exclusive from different social media platforms due to its China-based father or mother firm, ByteDance, which below Chinese regulation could be required at hand over inside knowledge to the federal government to help in intelligence work.
“Beijing’s requirement raises the obvious risk that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could weaponize TikTok against the United States, specifically, by forcing ByteDance to surrender Americans’ sensitive data or manipulate the content Americans receive to advance China’s interests,” Bennet wrote. “These obvious risks render TikTok, in its current form, an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States.”
TikTok has repeatedly sought to reassure involved American lawmakers and officers that it doesn’t retailer U.S. person knowledge in China. It has additionally been negotiating with the U.S. authorities about the way it can mitigate potential nationwide safety dangers whereas persevering with to function right here.
But up to now many lawmakers stay unconvinced, with Congress passing a invoice on the finish of final yr banning TikTok from authorities gadgets. Others have proposed banning TikTok within the U.S. altogether. Limits on TikTok to numerous levels have additionally proliferated throughout a number of states and universities.
In his letter, Bennet cites a BuzzFeed News article from final yr primarily based on recordings of inside conferences that discovered China-based staff at TikTok’s father or mother firm repeatedly accessed details about U.S. TikTok customers. Bennet additionally cited a latest Forbes article describing TikTok’s observe of “heating” or boosting choose movies to assist them go viral.
Bennet mentioned that means a “very real possibility that the CCP could compel TikTok, via ByteDance, to use its influence to advance Chinese government interests, for example, by tweaking its algorithm to present Americans content to undermine U.S. democratic institutions or muffle criticisms of CCP policy toward Hong Kong, Taiwan, or its Uighur population.”
“Unfortunately, Senator Bennet’s letter relies almost exclusively on misleading reporting about TikTok, the data we collect, and our data security controls,” TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter mentioned in an announcement. “It also ignores the considerable investment we have made through Project Texas—a plan negotiated with our country’s top national security experts—to provide additional assurances to our community about their data security and the integrity of the TikTok platform.”
Apple and Google didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
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