Pompeo: TikTok can send data to China

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo once again claimed that TikTok users’ “personal information flow across a Chinese server” and straight to “the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.”
• Pompeo supported President Donald Trump’s proposed ban of TikTok amid concerns over the national security risk it poses.
• The secretary of state said that the president will take measures in the coming days to address the issue.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo backed President Donald Trump’s proposed ban of social media app TikTok, telling Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that using the app exposes Americans to having their personal information sent straight to “the Chinese Communist Party.”

“These Chinese software companies doing business in the United States are feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party, their national security apparatus. Could be [users’] facial recognition pattern, it could be information about their residence, their phone numbers, their friends, who they’re connected to,” Pompeo said.

“Those are the issues that President Trump’s made clear we’re going to take care of. These are true national security issues,” he continued.

Trump on Friday called for a ban on the Chinese app over concerns about the risk to national security.

“President Trump has said, ‘enough’,” Pompeo told host Maria Bartiromo., adding that the president will take measures in the coming days to address “a broad array of national security risks” presented by software companies.

Microsoft has been reported to be in talks to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations but it has paused its efforts. Bartiromo asked Pompeo if having those operations under Microsoft would remove the risk of Chinese spying. Pompeo would only say that the Trump administration “will make sure that everything we have done drives us as close to zero risk for the American people.”

Pompeo warned leaders of tech companies who said that they have no knowledge that the Chinese Communist Party was trying to steal American intellectual property.

“I saw statements from senior American CEOs of the big tech companies this week saying they hadn’t heard or seen about intellectual property theft in the United States. That’s crazy talk,” he said.

In Congress and in the rest of the world, however, Pompeo said that leaders are understanding the problem the Chinese government poses.

“The good news is we’re getting nearly every member of Congress aligned along the administration’s policies on China,” Pompeo said, adding that “the tide is turning … not only here in the United States, but all across the world” in recognizing the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party.

Source: Fox News