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THE US GOVERNMENT has launched a national-security review of the China-owned video app TikTok, according to reports.
The reports on Friday from Reuters, The New York Times and others said that the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews acquisitions by foreign firms, has opened an inquiry into TikTok owner ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of a predecessor app, Musical.ly.
Several senators have recently noted concerns about censorship and data collection on TikTok.
The Treasury Department, which houses CFIUS, said it does not comment on specific cases because the agency by law cannot disclose to the public information filed to it.
On the app, people share short videos, often set to music. It is searchable by user names, songs and hashtags, such as “thisishalloween” or “tiktokcats”.
It claims to have more than 500 million active users in some 150 countries and regions.
TikTok said it cannot comment on ongoing regulatory processes.
But it said it “has made clear that we have no higher priority than earning the trust of users and regulators in the US. Part of that effort includes working with Congress and we are committed to doing so.”
After acquiring Musical.ly, Beijing-based ByteDance merged it into TikTok, which is popular among young people.
Musical.ly, popular in the US and Europe, had operated out of offices in Shanghai and California.
Senator Marco Rubio last month sent a letter to Treasury requesting a CFIUS review of the national-security implications of the Musical.ly deal, saying there is “ample and growing evidence” that TikTok is censoring content that is not in line with the Chinese government.
In the letter, he said there had been questions about why the app had so few videos of the recent protests in Hong Kong.
Senator Tom Cotton and Senator. Chuck Schumer later in October asked for the US intelligence community to assess national-security risks of TikTok and other Chinese-owned content platforms in the US.
They said that while TikTok says it stores US user data in the US, the company must still adhere to Chinese law on supplying information to the government. Such accusations have also been levelled against other Chinese companies, including Huawei.
The senators also said that TikTok is a potential target of foreign influence campaigns similar to Russia’s attempts to undermine the 2016 US election on Facebook.
TikTok has said its data is not subject to Chinese law and that it does not remove content based on “sensitivities related to China”.
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Facebook is clearly listening in on users conversations. Mention a specific beer or wine and you’ll see ads on it on your newsfeed over the next few days..
@David Garland: have you checked what permissions you have given the app? You can turn them off
@David Garland: it’s less direct but more sinister than listening to conversations. They are monitoring your relationships, everyone’s search and browsing habits, clicks on ads, etc. Using big data analysis they know what your friends will talk to you about, and focus ads on those things. They already know the conversations you are going to have.
@Aidan Finn: really, they know what I am going to say to the next troll I come across on FB? Really?
Seen a thing last week about the Chinese putting live pigs to test cars safety features it was disgusting what is wrong with these people!!! Also constantly spying on there citizens and now they want to spy on the world thank god Trump happened they need to made accountable
@Marty: So some Chinese people put live pigs in test cars and a whole nation is disgusting. We have battery hens, greyhounds, and children which we do or have abused. So we must be all disgusting? And the west doesn’t spy on its citizens? And your godly Trump and the USA don’t spy on other countries?
@Marty: Yeah!! it’s only acceptable when the USA is spying on everyone and doing shady af crap…
@Marty: As if Russia and the US don’t spy on their own populations albeit probably not to the same extent.
@Marty: Did you see this? https://www.rt.com/usa/472199-body-donation-center-frankenstein-cadaver/
@Marty: we test on live rats ferrets and even chimps in the west, how is that any better than pigs?
I dont agree with any of it but lets judge all countries by the same standards.
@Marty: they have been spying on the world for years, introduced a law where it was legal to spy on their own people,started wars in foreign lands and invaded countries for financial gain. Oh wait, it’s not China that does that.
@Marty: Spain kills bulls and the National Statistics Office just bought the data of 16 million mobile phone users movement data as tracked by autolocation. Disgusting people? I don’t think so.
@Marty:
Facebook/Google and the internet at large provide huge amounts of data to governements. The Chinese are refusing to probably refusing to share their data with US and this (and the fact that the US economy will be a minnow soon) is why Chinese companies are under attack.
Unknown tear gas cannisters/ prototype rubber bullets believed to be from the US have been fired at humans in Palestine.
Injustice is a global issue and not confined to any single nationality!
@Wreck Tangle: we made spying legal here a few years back. Check out our “data retention” laws introduced by FF. this legislation requires telecommunication companies to keep ALL of our emails, texts, phone call data etc. By law they HAVE to keep all our communications. Not only this but the data retention law includes for sharing of this info with the USA and brits whenever they ask for it.
If the law required the post office to open and photocopy every letter sent we would be on the streets but for some reason we allow it with texts and emails!
Strange society we live in.
@Marty: wake up Marty,
@Ananya Sharma: In all fairness your source is completely irrelevant. RT is a state funded broadcaster.
@Marty: you obviously haven’t been on this planet long enough to realise how it all works! The Chinese are the least of your worrys! And you don’t think the US is spying, the UK etc….you need to read a book…any book, it wont matter….
@SJF: Only on the internet can someone try to use whataboutism to defeat a legitimate argument.
If I sh*t on your lawn, does that make it OK for someone else to sh*t on your lawn too? Yes the USA spies on people, why does that make it OK for China to do it?
The logic displayed on the journal is about as dimwitted as you can possibly find on the internet.
@UKL: If you re-read the first comment it was totally anti-China and pro-US because China spies on its population and does testing on animals. It wasn’t whataboutery, it was showing how illogical the first argument made was, praising one country over another when they both partake in very similar actions. Nobody is arguing that spying on your population is a good thing, just that singling out one country for it when others do the same is as you put it ‘dimwitted’.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, Facebook, Google etc their selling your online activities and making a fortune. Any online business that doesn’t buy ads gets buried.
Google bought out Fitbit, so now Google know where I live, work, when I sleep, how long I sleep, my heart rate going to work, the phone can listen in on my conversations. Having second thoughts now about Fitbit, seems a bit much, I don’t really get much in return for my data, I mean I pay for Googles products, they get my data, which they make a nice profit on. If Google, buy out Revoult, then, they’ll know, where I work, my heart rate at lunch and what I had for lunch and how much I weighted at the time.
@Dave.: so why were you ok with whoever previously ran fitbit, or anyone except your doctor, having all that info?
@Dave.: I’m sure they will use all your facinating info to build a clone of you to invade Russia or something! All your info has been out there since the first day you used a Windows/Apple computer…
@Dave.: they already know all that without buying Fitbit
@Gerry Cummins: I’m okay with that hahaha
@Joan Murray: Yeah I was. Basically. I want my cut from the money Google are making from my data.
@Dave.: god knows how we survived as a society without fitbit
It could be true, but who really cares? I mean, does it really make difference if it’s Chinese or Americans listening in to what you do or say?
Neither is any good or benefit mankind.
A bit of good news at last… Knew this would occur….
Ah Tik Tok.
It’s like rectal cancer and testicular cancer meet at the taint/goofy and form a whole new cancer. That’s tik tok
have your say