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| The Director of the FBI warns of a threat to the national security of the United States |
FBI Director Chris Wray has raised national security concerns about TikTok, warning that control of the popular video-sharing app is in the hands of a Chinese government that "doesn't share our values."
Lei said the FBI is concerned about China's ability to control TikTok's recommendation algorithm, "which would allow them to manipulate content and, if they wanted, they could manipulate it to influence users." He also confirmed that China could use the app. To collect data on its users and then use it for traditional espionage.
"All of these things are in the hands of an administration that doesn't share our values and has a very different mission to serve America's interests," said Ray of the University of Michigan's Gerald Ford School of Public Policy. This is something we must take care of. These concerns are similar to those Rae raised when he brought the case to Congress last month.
It is worth noting that the administration of former US President Donald Trump threatened to ban the application in the United States in 2020 and pressured the owner of the ByteDance application to demand that it be sold to an American company.
Now US officials and the company are negotiating a deal that could address US security concerns, a process Ray says is under way at US government agencies.
"As Director Ray previously said, the FBI's contribution will be considered as part of our ongoing negotiations with the US government," TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberoit said in a statement. She added, "While we cannot comment on the details of these confidential discussions, we believe we are on the right track to address all legitimate national security concerns of the United States, and we have made significant progress in implementing these decisions."
Although TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, TikTok's statement on Friday said that ByteDance is a private company and that TikTok Inc. , which provides TikTok services in the United States, "is an American corporation governed by United States law."
During a Senate hearing last September, when asked by members of both parties, TikTok's chief operating officer, Vanessa Pappas, said the company protects all user data in the United States and that Chinese government officials don't have access to it.