USA: TikTok is a Chinese-owned video app and on Tuesday FBI Director Christopher Wray reiterated the bureau's long-standing national security concerns before lawmakers.
He also said the agency is sharing its opinion with authorities who are considering a deal that would allow it to continue operating in the US.
Ray advised MPs. According to a report, the app's recommendation algorithms, which determine which videos users will watch, "could be used to influence operations if they so choose". The Chinese government can use it to control the data or software of millions of users.
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Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee that the law essentially requires Chinese companies to — and I'm going to use a shorthand here — basically do everything the Chinese government requires them to share information or use as a tool. Wants to do in terms of acting as. Chinese government. This alone is a good reason to be very concerned.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the government body reviewing the deal, has been made aware of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's concerns.
According to TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwatter, the FBI's suggestions have been taken into account as part of our ongoing discussions with the US government, as Director Wray clarified in his remarks.
"We are confident that we are on track to fully satisfy all reasonable US national security concerns, even though we cannot comment on the specifics of those confidential discussions," the statement said.
Millions of Americans use the popular video streaming app, which has become the center of a long national security debate. At the same time, it has become important to reach young voters, who are abandoning social networks such as Facebook and Twitter in increasing numbers.
A proposal to allow TikTok to continue operating in the US under the control of its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. is being considered by the Biden administration. The agreement will cover Oracle Corporation's servers being used to route US users' traffic, as well as Oracle Corporation monitoring the app's algorithms.
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China hawks on the Hill are expected to criticize any deal that falls short of an outright ban or a sale of the platform to a US company, given that the app will continue to pose a threat.
TikTok on all government phones would be officially outlawed by legislation that Congress is currently considering.
Last week, two prominent Republican lawmakers argued in an opinion piece for The Washington Post that TikTok should be outlawed entirely in the US.
Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio of Florida announced they would introduce legislation to make the platform and others "effectively controlled by the CCP".
Ray offered to brief legislators in a private setting on the FBI's reservations regarding the platform and the potential deal. According to him, the Bureau's Foreign Investment Division is providing feedback on the potential deal through the CFIUS process, and he hopes that its concerns will be taken into account in any agreement.
The Justice Department, which is in charge of US counterintelligence operations, has had reservations about the app for some time. The agreement drafted by the Biden administration doesn't do enough to protect American users' data from Chinese actors, according to Bloomberg, according to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, the department's No. 2 official.
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According to Ray, the FBI is particularly concerned about the threat posed by the Chinese government, which uses its laws as "an offensive weapon" against US and Chinese businesses to "do whatever the Chinese government wants to do".