Washington

Washington turns up the heat on TikTok

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TikTok is going through a renewed spherical of bipartisan alarms over how absolutely it protects U.S. customers’ knowledge from the Chinese language authorities.

Why it issues: The short-video community survived a demise sentence from former president Donald Trump and has grown into an more and more influential social-media channel. However its rise has been dogged from the beginning by questions round its possession by a Chinese language dad or mum firm.

Driving the information: Leaders on the Senate Intelligence Committee leaders on Tuesday requested the Federal Commerce Fee to analyze considerations that TikTok’s knowledge practices and company governance pose privateness and safety dangers for Individuals.

  • The request,, signed by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), cited a current BuzzFeed Information investigation that appeared to contradict TikTok’s testimony to the committee final 12 months.
  • The grievance is the most recent in a collection not too long ago raised by Washington Republicans concerning the firm.

The large image: TikTok is China’s first main success at constructing a platform exterior its home market — one which now poses a problem to U.S.-based market leaders together with Fb and YouTube.

  • The community, fueled by a extremely efficient algorithm, feeds customers an limitless stream of addictive quick movies.
  • However TikTok’s Chinese language dad or mum firm, ByteDance, has confronted a protracted collection of controversies centered on considerations over consumer knowledge, safety and the corporate’s statements to U.S. authorities on these points.

Our thought bubble, from Axios’ Ashley Gold: The bipartisan letter exhibits that many on Capitol Hill consider TikTok may have lied below oath about its knowledge practices.

  • An FTC investigation would transfer slowly, however may finally end in fines and require TikTok to undertake safer practices.
  • “In gentle of repeated misrepresentations by TikTok regarding its knowledge safety, knowledge processing, and company governance practices, we urge you to behave promptly on this matter,” the senators’ letter to FTC chair Lina Khan reads.

FTC spokesperson Juliana Gruenwald Henderson confirmed in an e mail to Axios that the company acquired the letter however had no extra remark.

Catch up fast: The senators’ letter follows one from Republican FCC commissioner Brendan Carr final month, asking Apple and Alphabet to take away TikTok from their app shops over comparable considerations.

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  • Final month, 9 Republican senators additionally despatched a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew elevating comparable factors. TikTok replied to the lawmakers in an eight-page letter about its plans to safeguard U.S. knowledge.

Of word: The FTC has taken motion in opposition to TikTok beforehand. In 2019, TikTok agreed to a $5.7 million settlement with the FTC for accumulating youngsters’s private knowledge.





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