FCC Commissioner Asks Apple and Google to Remove TikTok From App Stores

Federal Communications Commission member Brendan Carr on Tuesday called for Apple and Google to remove the TikTok app from its online stores, citing serious concerns about privacy. He added, "Numerous provisions of Apple's & Google's policies are relevant to TikTok's pattern of surreptitious data harvesting-a pattern that runs contrary to its public representations. And there's plenty of precedent for holding TikTok accountable by booting it from these app stores." Carr said the report, which was conducted by an external auditor on BuzzFeed's behalf, demonstrates that TikTok is "Out of compliance with the policies that both require every app to adhere to." TikTok called theBuzzFeed report "Misleading" in a statement sent to CNN: "Like many global companies, TikTok has engineering teams around the world. We employ access controls like encryption and security monitoring to secure user data, and the access approval process is overseen by our US-based security team. TikTok has consistently maintained that our engineers in locations outside of the US, including China, can be granted access to U.S. user data on an as-needed basis under those strict controls." On Wednesday, eight Republican politicians, including Senator Roger Wicker, Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn shared a letter sent to CEO of TikTok Shou Zi Chew expressing their concern over the BuzzFeed report. "We are very concerned that, in light of these reports, TikTok's representative did not provide truthful or forthright answers to the Senate Commerce Committee at its subcommittee hearing. It appears that TikTok is now taking steps to deflect from its knowing misrepresentations by changing the way in which 'protected' data can be accessed by its employees," the letter read in part. According to the summaries, TikTok can circumvent security protections on Apple and Google app stores and uses device tracking that gives ByteDance full access to user data.