US Govt calls TikTok a Chinese spyware, asks Apple and Google to remove app from app store
India Today
Brenden Carr, who works as a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has written to Apple and Google asking them to remove TikTok from the App Store and Play Store.
A US Govt official has asked for a permanent ban on video-sharing platform TikTok. Brenden Carr, who works as a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), has written to Apple and Google asking them to remove TikTok from the App Store and Play Store. He alleges that the Bytedance-owned app does not comply with the app store policies of Apple and Google.
Brenden Carr posted a long letter to Apple and Google detailing why TikTok should be removed from the app stores. "TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funny videos or memes. That's sheep's clothing. At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data.It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk due to its extensive data harvesting being combined with Beijing's apparently unchecked access to that sensitive data,” he noted.
Carr in his letter alleged that Bytedance officials in Bejing have repeatedly accessed the sensitive data that TikTok had collected from the Americans who downloaded the app through the app stores. He quoted instances from the Buzzfeed News which claimed that TikTok officials accessed sensitive data of Americans.Carr has also raised national security reasons which was exactly why TikTok was banned in India.
Carr has said that if Apple and Google fail to remove TikTok from their app stores, they will have to please provide separate responses to me by July 8, 2022, explaining the basis for your company's “conclusion that the surreptitious access of private and sensitive U.S. user data by persons located in Beijing, coupled with TikTok's pattern of misleading representations and conduct, does not run afoul of any of your app store policies.”
