FCC Commissioner Asks Tech Companies to Remove TikTok From App Stores

CNBC: A leader of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said he has asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over China-related data security concerns. The wildly popular short video app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which faced U.S. scrutiny under President Donald Trump. Brendan Carr, one of the FCC’s commissioners, shared via Twitter a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. The letter pointed to reports and other developments that made TikTok non-compliant with the two companies’ app store policies. “TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funny videos or meme. That’s the sheep’s clothing,” he said in the letter. “At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data” (CNBC). 

Brendan Carr: 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 (Twitter). 

Fox News: Though it’s already well known that TikTok collects vast troves of sensitive data from its U.S. users, Carr pointed to a new report by BuzzFeed News citing leaked recordings that reveal ByteDance officials in Beijing have repeatedly accessed the data collected from Americans who downloaded TikTok from Apple and Google app stores. The revelation contradicts previous claims from TikTok that data collected from Americans through the video app is stored on servers in the United States. “Everything is seen in China,” a TikTok official says in the recording (Fox News).