TikTok’s Parent Company Under Investigation for Allegedly Accessing User Data [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW!

• The FBI and Department of Justice are investigating ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, for using the app to surveil American journalists.
• The DOJ Criminal Division and FBI have subpoenaed information from ByteDance regarding efforts by its employees to access private user data using the TikTok app.
• The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has demanded that ByteDance divest from TikTok or face a nationwide ban of the app due to national security concerns.

The FBI and Department of Justice are conducting an investigation into allegations that ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, used the app to surveil American journalists. The DOJ Criminal Division and FBI have subpoenaed information from ByteDance regarding efforts by its employees to access private user data using the TikTok app.

The investigation follows reports in Forbes in October 2022 that ByteDance was using the app to surveil U.S. citizens. An internal investigation by ByteDance confirmed the allegations in December 2022.

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has demanded that ByteDance divest from TikTok or face a nationwide ban of the app due to national security concerns. CFIUS has been attempting to negotiate a national security contract with TikTok for several years to mitigate concerns that the app could be used by the Chinese government to access valuable private information about U.S. citizens or manipulate U.S. civic discourse.

The divestiture demand marks a significant defeat for TikTok, which had promised to spend $1.5 billion on a set of data sequestration plans, known as Project Texas, which it hoped would allow ByteDance to continue to own TikTok.

TikTok has said that neither divestment nor a ban would address the national security concerns raised by skeptics in Washington. Instead, it has urged CFIUS to accept a proposal, based on Project Texas, that would allow ByteDance to continue to own TikTok. However, CFIUS’s divestment demand seems to suggest the proposal has failed to convince the government.

This demand comes amid heightened concern about TikTok on Capitol Hill, with a bipartisan coalition beginning to push for a full ban of the app in December 2022, and lawmakers expressing outrage at the companies’ surveillance of reporters.

Source: forbes.com