FCC Commissioner Wants Apple, Google To Remove TikTok From App Stores (cnbc.com) 40
A leader of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission said he has asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over China-related data security concerns. CNBC reports: The wildly popular short video app is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, which faced U.S. scrutiny under President Donald Trump. Brendan Carr, one of the FCC's commissioners, shared via Twitter a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. The letter pointed to reports and other developments that made TikTok non-compliant with the two companies' app store policies.
"TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funny videos or meme. That's the sheep's clothing," he said in the letter. "At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data." Carr's letter, dated June 24 on FCC letterhead, said if the Apple and Alphabet do not remove TikTok from their app stores, they should provide statements to him by July 8. The statements should explain "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," he said. A TikTok spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in a statement: "We know we're among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of US user data. That's why we hire experts in their fields, continually work to validate our security standards, and bring in reputable, independent third parties to test our defenses."
"TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funny videos or meme. That's the sheep's clothing," he said in the letter. "At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data." Carr's letter, dated June 24 on FCC letterhead, said if the Apple and Alphabet do not remove TikTok from their app stores, they should provide statements to him by July 8. The statements should explain "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," he said. A TikTok spokesperson told BuzzFeed News in a statement: "We know we're among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of US user data. That's why we hire experts in their fields, continually work to validate our security standards, and bring in reputable, independent third parties to test our defenses."
Cool (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes but no. (Score:2)
I agree but the issue here is more related to national security than it is related to personal privacy. ByteDance could be ordered to deploy a RAT to specific parties of the CCP's choosing which could be used to move laterally to their intended target.
Just think, you get GPS data that matches known defense contractor employee (thanks to the OPM breach) working on XYZ and you want to steal info from the defense contractor. All they would need to do is use the application as a relay point to access a home's
Re:Yes but no. (Score:4, Insightful)
Facebook is evil but they aren't working for the CCP.
They don't have to be working for the CCP for the CCP to "legitimately" buy the data indirectly from Facebook via data markets. They're not regulated so they're basically the wild west ATM. The only way to stop it is to stop the data collection in the first place.
Re: (Score:3)
They don't have to be working for the CCP for the CCP to "legitimately" buy the data indirectly from Facebook via data markets.
You are correct. However, I doubt that's the real issue here (despite claims to the contrary) expressly because they aren't applying the same standard to US companies.
Re: (Score:1)
So, ban it for everyone because high profile government employees/contractors might be idiots? Ugh.
Re: (Score:2)
No, it's because children are idiots and they are the ones that are installing it. Employees of every important company have children.
Re: Cool (Score:1)
Re: Cool (Score:2, Offtopic)
Holy F, is that really a firstpost bestpost by serial cryptocurrency misunderstander Radiant Silvergun?
Tiktok is for sure a security and privacy threat, but so is facebook, an app that took until 2018 to let you disable background tracking on Android, an app that always monitored everything the OS would physically let it do.
We are only hearing about Tiktok because the ISF correctly realizes it is handing information over to another country's government. But apps should not be surveilling us at all, be it f
Re: Cool (Score:2)
Sorry, *USG, as in, United States Government, not "ISF", whatever that is. Two adjacent typos in a three letter initialism. The dangers of phoneposting.
Re: (Score:2)
TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funny videos or meme. That's the sheep's clothing," he said in the letter. "At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data."
Please name any non-FOSS app on Apple's or Google's repos that doesn't do this. Apparently, it's harmless fun & perfectly OK & even beneficial for 'Murican corporations to do this & provide all the data to American & foreign spy agencies (See the "Five Eyes") but it's a danger to citizens & to national security when a country Washington doesn't like, e.g. China, does it.
Have I understood correctly?
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it's a danger to citizens & to national security when a country Washington doesn't like, e.g. China, does it.
China likely doesn't have a single fuck to give about what the average American gets up to. I was recently looking at the pride merchandise at Target, and it is absolutely hilarious how much of it was made in China. In case you didn't know, they're absolutely terrible when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights [wikipedia.org]. However, they're more than happy to make all manner of rainbow-colored kitsch and sell it to Americans.
Meanwhile, if you're a teacher in Florida and one of your students finds your Twitter or Facebook page wh
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Cool (Score:1)
Should have been done long ago. (Score:3)
Because China lies.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Trump tried.
Re: (Score:1, Offtopic)
You got me confused with DT, I don't make this stuff up. You must have been slurping DT's crap for too long.
Visit the Trump 30,000 false claims database website and explore it. The database has an extremely fast search engine that will quickly locate suspect statements made by Trump. Readers can also isolate claims by time period, subject or venue. https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
Re: Should have been done long ago. (Score:3)
Sure, and you don't think it'd be possible to build a similar database on Biden or Obama? It'll be particularly easy if you're happy to include 'lies' where subjectivity applies or where the supposed lie has no consequences.
This listicle says more about the drop in standards at the Washington post than anything else.
Re: (Score:1)
"you don't think it'd be possible to build a similar database on Biden or Obama?"
No. The press does a fairly good job of ferreting out when an official is casting a falsehood.
The falsehoods to which the article refers have been well-documented. Frequently, they wouldn't list something as a falsehood if the evidence didn't support. It is a curated collection of falsehoods.
Acid test: base your investments on the former alleged president's businesses. I'll bet you won't.
Defences aren't the problem.. (Score:2)
The "defences" aren't the problem. The built-in backdoors are, which I'm sure any 'third party' won't be allowed to have access to.
FCC and TikTok (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
> This appears to just be a letter from him and not an action of the FCC - correct?
It sounds like he's asking them to say why they're hosting it contrary to their developer agreements and perhaps US law, in a statement possibly subject to perjury rules.
It's reasonable for Commissioners to do some research.
Maybe they have a good excuse and the Commission won't need to take an action.
Maybe they're just sucking CCP dong and won't provide a good answer. It's a "your move" scenario.
Re: (Score:2)
It's because TikTok is massively popular and removing it would upset a lot of customers.
Yeah - kinda like the Chuck Schumer letter (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, it's a letter from one of commissioners.
Kinda like the letter Chuck Schumer sent about TikTok a few years ago, which led to a fire sale situation at Bytedance and TikTok.
The top Dem Senator had sent a letter to CFIUS asking them to investigate the apparent violations of the acquisition terms. They did investigate, of course, and found they had violated the terms and the company could not legally continue to operate as it was while owned by Chinese owners. The president at the time signed the order and TikTok was faced with having to either shut down or sell.
That was the result of the last time someone a top official wrote a letter about Tik Tok. We'll see what happens this time.
Yes, Samuel L. Jackson ... (Score:2, Funny)
The FCC is apparently about done [youtube.com] with TikTok ...
This is to get ready for MEARCTO (Score:2, Funny)
FCC? (Score:2)
Does the Federal Communications Commission have jurisdiction over the decision as to what apps are made available on app stores?
I'm not a fan of tick-tock, but.... this seems like a reach.
Brendan Carr is a stooge for Ajit Pai and DT (Score:2)
The author of the letter is Brendan Carr who was a legal advisor to DT's Federal Communications Commission chair Ajit Pai who in turn is a world-reknowned corporate stooge. Carr became general counsel of the FCC. and then was nominated by DT to be member of the FCC.
They are all corporate stooges, except they are American corporate stooges so that should be worth something when they have all your data.
The CCP has Apple and Google (Score:2)
by the balls.
All of apple's consumer devices are manufactured in Chinese factories. Ditto for most stuff that generates licensing revenue for Google.
They don't do jack squat about TikTok (or wechat) because if they did, there's a nonzero chance their entire revenue stream gets cut off hard.
Engagement with China ftw.
Let me fix that for ya (Score:4, Funny)
That’s a tad more accurate. Not that this is any different than Facebook, and we literally let them get away with (abetting) murder. So, whats the big deal?
Under What Authority? (Score:2)
Here's what the FCC wants to hide (Score:1, Insightful)
You may wonder what secrets American children have that TikTok and their overseers are after. Probably not top secret stuff; so what is it?
Well it is not a secret that the children have, it's a secret that America has: our children are a mess, just like our adults. We are unfit to lead the world into the future. We have the poorest education system, the worst medical system, and we can't agree on anything because half the population is living in a quasi religious fantasy. We easily fall prey to scams and mi
Re: (Score:2)
I wish I had mod points to mod this up.
The fact that someone here modded this as flamebait (presumably because they genuinely believe that none of your points are true) only serves to show the scale and depth of the problem that summarized so well.
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TikTok should just start making guns and then they'll never have to worry about being banned in the USA.
Remove Youtube shorts while you are at it... (Score:2)
(I know there are browser extentions to fix the problem....)