FCC commissioner asks Google and Apple to remove TikTok apps

An FCC commissioner is asking Google and Apple to remove the TikTok apps following a BuzzFeed News investigation that appears to have revealed Beijing is accessing US users’ personal data.

“TikTok is not just another video app. It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”Here is what Brendan Carr wrote in a tweet along with a copy of the letter he sent to Apple and Google asking the two giants to remove TikTok from their app store. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Republican commissioner cites a recent BuzzFeed News article that looked at audio leaks from 80 internal TikTok meetings. China-based employees of TikTok’s parent company ByteDance often have access to the personal data of US residents, they said.

FCC commissioner asks Google and Apple to remove TikTok apps

A member of TikTok’s trust and safety department is reported to have said during a meeting in September 2021 that “in China, everything is visible.”In another meeting, the director stated that the engineer from Beijing, the “master administrator”, had “access to everything.”Just hours before BuzzFeed News published their story, TikTok announced that it had moved 100% of US user traffic to the new Oracle Cloud infrastructure. An initiative that is part of an effort the company has made to allay US authorities’ concerns about the management of US users’ personal data.

Beijing will gain access to the personal data of American users

In his letter, Brendan Carr lists several other reports containing “disturbing evidence and rulings regarding TikTok’s data practices.”In the past, researchers have found that the app can bypass Android and iOS security measures to access sensitive user data. And the commissioner cites TikTok’s decision to shell out $92 million in 2021 to avoid dozens of lawsuits, mostly from minors, accusing the platform of collecting their personal data without their consent and selling it to advertisers.

Brendan Carr wrote in part: “TikTok clearly poses an unacceptable national security threat due to excessive data collection and Beijing’s apparently uncontrolled access to this sensitive data. The FCC commissioner is giving Google and Apple until July 8 to explain why they haven’t removed the app from their app store if they refuse to do so. This letter is signed only by Brendan Carr, do other commissioners share this feeling? Case to follow!

TikTok is not just another video app.
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

June 28, 2022