Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that TikTok owner ByteDance could share user data – such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers – with China’s government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not do so if asked. The US government also has not provided evidence of that happening.
In a separate move, Biden recently signed an executive order allowing the Department of Justice and other federal agencies to take steps to prevent the large-scale transfer of Americans’ personal data to what the White House calls “countries of concern”, including China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela.
Biden, in 2022, banned the use of TikTok by the federal government’s nearly 4 million employees on devices owned by its agencies, with limited exceptions for law enforcement, national security and security research purposes.
While his administration has raised national security concerns about TikTok, Biden’s re-election campaign last month joined the platform.
If enacted, the Bill would effectively ban TikTok and other ByteDance apps from being available in Apple or Google app stores or on web hosting services in the US
The Bill takes a two-pronged approach. First, it requires ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, to divest TikTok and other applications it controls within 180 days of enactment of the Bill or those applications will be prohibited in the United States. Second, it creates a narrow process to let the executive branch prohibit access to an app owned by a foreign adversary if it poses a threat to national security.
The company also has promised to wall off US user data from its parent company through a separate entity run independently from ByteDance and monitored by outside observers.
A poll published last month by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found Americans are deeply divided on the issue of banning the app. Thirty-one per cent of US adults said they would favour a nationwide ban on TikTok use, while 35 per cent said they would oppose that type of action. An additional 31 per cent of adults said they neither favour nor oppose a ban on the social media platform.
The AP-NORC poll shows TikTok users – about 170 million in the US, most of whom skew younger – are less likely to be worried about the app sharing American users’ data, reflecting a previously felt generational divide. About a quarter of daily users say they are “extremely or very concerned” about the idea of the Chinese government obtaining the personal information of users, compared to about half of US adults overall.
Source: CNA
