Federal Commerce Fee Chair Lina Khan is dealing with new strain from high Senate Intelligence leaders to research TikTok after new stories that the corporate shares US knowledge with China-based staff.
In a letter to Khan on Tuesday, Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), Senate Intelligence Committee leaders, referred to as on the FTC to open an investigation into TikTok’s knowledge safety practices. The decision comes after a June BuzzFeed News report detailed how China-based ByteDance engineers had entry to TikTok’s US knowledge as late as January 2022.
“In mild of repeated misrepresentations by TikTok regarding its knowledge safety, knowledge processing, and company governance practices, we urge you to behave promptly on this matter,” the senators wrote.
The senators’ newest name for an investigation comes amid a brand new wave of regulatory skepticism towards TikTok. After the BuzzFeed report was launched final month, Brendan Carr, a Republican on the Federal Communications Fee, requested Apple and Google to take away TikTok from their app shops. Later, a bipartisan group of senators wrote to TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, demanding solutions relating to the app’s knowledge safety practices.
On Friday, Chew responded to US lawmakers, confirming that China-based staff might entry US consumer knowledge. Chew additionally defined that TikTok was working with Oracle to implement “new superior knowledge safety controls that we hope to finalize within the close to future.”
Since 2020, authorities officers have accused TikTok of sharing US consumer knowledge with the Chinese language authorities, successfully permitting Chinese language officers to trace and surveil Individuals. TikTok has tried to quell lawmaker issues, however Chew’s newest letter has prompted much more criticism.
In a Tuesday statement, Warner stated, “For years, TikTok has assured lawmakers that consumer knowledge – and enterprise operations – had been successfully firewalled from the Individuals’s Republic of China.” He continued, “It’s an actual concern when main communications apps are topic to authoritarian authorities requests.”
In an announcement final week, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) referred to as for TikTok to testify earlier than Congress in mild of current stories.
“TikTok’s response confirms that our fears relating to CCP affect throughout the firm are well-founded,” Blackburn stated. “They need to have come clear from the beginning however as a substitute tried to shroud their work in secrecy. Individuals have to know that if they’re on TikTok, Communist China has their data. TikTok wants to come back again and testify earlier than Congress.”