Federal Commerce Fee Chair Lina Khan is going through new stress from high Senate Intelligence leaders to research TikTok after new reviews that the corporate shares US information 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, known as on the FTC to open an investigation into TikTok’s information safety practices. The decision comes after a June BuzzFeed News report detailed how China-based ByteDance engineers had entry to TikTok’s US information as late as January 2022.
“In mild of repeated misrepresentations by TikTok regarding its information safety, information 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 concerning the app’s information safety practices.
On Friday, Chew responded to US lawmakers, confirming that China-based workers may entry US person information. Chew additionally defined that TikTok was working with Oracle to implement “new superior information safety controls that we hope to finalize within the close to future.”
Since 2020, authorities officers have accused TikTok of sharing US person information with the Chinese language authorities, successfully permitting Chinese language officers to trace and surveil People. TikTok has tried to quell lawmaker issues, however Chew’s newest letter has prompted much more criticism.
In a Tuesday statement, Warner mentioned, “For years, TikTok has assured lawmakers that person information – 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) known as for TikTok to testify earlier than Congress in mild of latest reviews.
“TikTok’s response confirms that our fears concerning CCP affect inside the firm are well-founded,” Blackburn mentioned. “They need to have come clear from the beginning however as an alternative tried to shroud their work in secrecy. People must know that if they’re on TikTok, Communist China has their data. TikTok wants to come back again and testify earlier than Congress.”