TikTok is now in a beleaguered position since the US House has been discussing enforcing new measures to prevent possible data piracy—likely driven by adversarial nations, especially China. This Chinese-owned short-video app was the centre of attention throughout Wednesday’s US House meeting, amidst the prospective rendezvous with TikTok chief executive Chew Shou Zi that is set for late March.
Representative Diana Harshbarger, a Republican from Tennessee, compared TikTok to opium addiction.
“I’ve seen reports that detail China’s version of TikTok, which offers the friendly version with educational videos and learning tools and time limits,” she opined. “And then you come over here and you see the opium version, which addicts our children in front of their phones.”
The House Energy and Commerce Committee last year bolstered a bipartisan bill that would create a national data privacy standard, supported by Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers and sponsored by ranking member Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. However, the measure didn’t receive a House floor vote, and no equivalent legislation has been approved by the Senate.
When compared to industry behemoths like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, TikTok’s situation is more complex.
TikTok alongside WeChat, a well-known messaging app owned by China, were both banned from the U.S. market by an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in July 2020 because they “threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economics of the United States.” But a few months later, Trump signed an agreement that created a unique American organization named TikTok Global acting as a separate U.S. entity.
Even so, this arrangement failed to acquire empathy from the public.
Subsequently, in last Dec., the U.S. Congress banned all government employees in federal departments from using TikTok on government-owned devices. The “tolerant TikTok ban bill” was spearheaded by Republican U.S. Senator Josh Hawley.
China Uses TikTok to Infringe on Americans’ Rights
Hawley’s push for legislation is one of a series of restrictions on Tik Tok that have been constantly suspected of having links to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Regarding the bill he proposed to ban this app on permissive devices, Sen. Hawley said, “Based on everything we know, it’s unthinkable to allow federal officials entrusted with sensitive government data to access TikTok on their work phones and computers.”
“The U.S. Congress is encouraged by bipartisan support to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable. This includes holding companies that follow orders from the Chinese authorities accountable.”
In fact, national security and intelligence chiefs warn that TikTok poses a threat to national security because it is closely linked to its parent company, ByteDance, which has numerous ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
In an interview with the media on Dec 2022, CIA Director William Burns pointed out that TikTok’s parent company is a Chinese company headquartered in Beijing, China, and that the Chinese government could not only demand its users in the U.S. extract their personal information but also manipulate the content delivered through the app to cause devastating consequences.
Similarly, FBI Director Christopher Wray also analyzed how TikTok could be used to collect Americans’ data and exert enormous influence on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party.
Appearing at a Homeland Security Committee hearing last November, Wray said, “The Chinese government can control the data collection and algorithms of millions of users, and if it wants, it can use it to exert influence.”
TikTok is suspected of recording every password you type, as well as clicks and swipes, text communications, and even incomplete information. The recorded data is not passively stored, nor is it kept in the US.
According to an internal inquiry conducted in last Dec., ByteDance personnel utilized TikTok to get unauthorized access to the user accounts of American and British journalists who were probing claims of political ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
By employing the app to check for American journalists’ IP addresses, ByteDance personnel tracked them inconspicuously, while they were on American soil.
Under Chinese law, the Chinese government can require Chinese companies to provide any data, let alone data stored abroad. When asked by the government, Chinese companies are obliged to provide all data indiscriminately.
