On Friday, Christopher Wray of the FBI raised concerns that Chinese owned Tik Tok “is in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us.”
China controls the app’s recommendation algorithm allowing them to provide manipulative content to users. In addition, the Chinese government can leverage the app for data collection, aiding the development of Chinese Artificial Intelligence. All that AI in the hands of China can aid China’s global dominance and pose a clear threat to U.S. national security.
At a Senate hearing in September, TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas reassured a bipartisan group of congress members, claiming that the company protects all American data and that Chinese government officials have zero access to it. She also claimed that TikTok was making “progress toward a final agreement with the U.S. government to further safeguard U.S. user data and fully address U.S. national security interests.”
“We will never share data, period,” Pappas said.
This was in response to concerns brought up by Wray at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. Then, he posited that the ruling Communist Party in China could use TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm to influence users and control the software for espionage operations.
In a related story, just yesterday Texas became the latest state in a growing list of state governments that have banned Tik Tok on government devices in the past few weeks. Maryland, South Dakota, South Carolina, and Nebraska have all signed orders or issued similiar directives. This is part of a wider effort to ban the use of apps that are operated in hostile environments including Russian Kaspersky.
The Tik Tok issue brings to light the glaring question: Why has the US not passed data laws like the EU? The real data security challenge is more complex than the China issue alone. Congress should take a strong stance on the broader data protection issue, and not limit itself to a “let’s stop China” issue.
Although not as dramatic as being in the hands of China, other social media platforms are also collecting massive amounts of data and using it in manipulative ways or selling it to anyone who wants it. It’s time for more to be done to protect our personal data from US and foreign entities alike.
