The FCC is urging Apple and Google to strip TikTok from their app stores following evidence of extensive data harvesting.
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai pleading with them to ban the short-clip video app “for failure to abide by” store policies. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr cited a BuzzFeed News report that claimed TikTok’s parent company ByteDance repeatedly accessed sensitive data collected from users in the United States. That investigation verified that between September 2021 and January 2022, TikTok engineers in China had access to American data. In a statement to CNBC, a TikTok spokesperson says that engineers outside of the U.S. are only provided access to user data on a strict as-needed basis.
Carr maintained that TikTok is not the entertaining pastime it initially seemed to be after becoming popular for dance challenges and funny clips. “At its core,” the app is a “sophisticated surveillance tool” that records browsing history, keystroke patterns, and other identifiers.
To build his argument, Carr also pointed out the temporary ban that the U.S. Navy issued against TikTok due to possible cybersecurity threats. Carr is requesting a response from Apple and Google if they fail to remove the app by July 8th.
Shortly after the BuzzFeed report, TikTok announced it was moving all of United States user traffic and private data to U.S.-based Oracle Cloud systems.
Google nor Apple have responded publicly to the FCC’s request.
