![]() ![]() Still, it is unclear whether TikTok poses a unique and specific threat to US national security or if it is simply a convenient proxy through which lawmakers are grappling with larger issues of data security and privacy, disinformation, content moderation, and influence in a globalized tech market. Chew and TikTok have long maintained that it they “have not provided US user data to the CCP, nor would we if asked.” When WIRED asked TikTok how this squares with the reality that ByteDance has access and could be compelled to exercise it under Chinese law, spokesperson Maureen Shanahan said, “TikTok is provided in the United States by TikTok Inc., which is incorporated in California and subject to US laws and regulations.” Does that mean the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can get that data too? In his June 30 response to the nine Republican senators, TikTok's Chew said, “Employees outside the US, including China-based employees, can have access to TikTok US user data subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our US-based security team.” He described at length the layers of classification and restriction that protect user data from being accessed casually or without oversight. And some ByteDance employees can access TikTok user data. The bottom line, though, is that TikTok is owned by ByteDance. The company stores data backups in the US and Singapore. The company is still working on deleting all user data from its own servers in favor of processing everything in Oracle's cloud. Though the move failed, TikTok took steps to silo itself from its Chinese owners and announced in June that all US user traffic would be routed in the US. ![]() In the waning months of the Trump administration, the White House attempted to block TikTok from US app stores if ByteDance didn't sell the company to a US-based firm. Such steps would be less dramatic than the approach to TikTok taken by Biden's predecessor but would have a larger scope and wider set of potential ramifications. The report says the White House's actions could significantly curtail US investment in China, while other potential measures may limit what technology can be sold to Chinese clients and specifically limit the data Chinese tech companies can collect about US citizens. So, is it protectionism? Xenophobia? Special insight into US national security?Ī report published by Semafor on Friday indicates that the Biden administration is preparing a series of executive orders to address TikTok and the Chinese tech sector's access to Americans' data more broadly. And long before the rise of TikTok, China was already notorious on the global stage for stealing massive quantities of data about Americans and others from governments and companies around the world. Huge quantities of sensitive data about people living in the US are already available in various forms for purchase or the taking through other public social media platforms, the digital marketing industry, data brokers, and leaked stolen data troves. But the reason TikTok has been singled out is less clear. With so many users, TikTok is clearly a potentially rich source of personal data and could be exploited in the way other social platforms have been to spread disinformation or promote influence operations. ![]() But for the general public, warnings from legislators and regulators this summer have continued to be vague and amorphous, underscoring broader ambiguity about where lawmakers' precise concerns lie. This followed a June 17 BuzzFeed News report, which found that ByteDance employees can and do gain access to US TikTok users' data in some situations. Just last month, the chief administrative officer for the US House of Representatives warned lawmakers against installing TikTok due to the data it can collect. The US military banned its members from using TikTok on government devices or at all in late 2019 and early 2020, as did the Transportation Security Administration and some other federal agencies. ![]()
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