Lately the popularity of TikTok has exploded all over the world, and so has probe over the parent company of the app, ByteDance, and its association with the government of China. Now media reports that the CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) has started a national security probe of the firm, since it had not asked for approval to make its $1 Billion acquirement of Musical.ly in 2017.
US lawmakers have shown concerns over the ability of the app to gather info while the firm answered claiming, “TikTok is pledged to being a responsible and trusted corporate citizen in the US, which comprises operating with Congress and all pertinent regulatory organizations.” The report claims that Alex Zhu (Musical.ly founder and now-chief-of-TikTok) lately started to report directly to Zhang Yiming (ByteDance CEO), which can assist separate it from the firm’s other holdings. In the meantime, ByteDance just declared plans for its first handsets.
On a related note, TikTok is an innocent service to most and full of funny or cute videos. But to politicians, it is a possible national security danger. Tom Cotton (Senator) and Chuck Schumer (Senate Minority Leader) have officially asked the Intelligence Community to probe whether TikTok and other China-based content services cause a danger. “With more than 110 Million downloads alone in the US, TikTok is a possible counterintelligence danger we cannot overlook,” the Senators claimed.
They highlight that TikTok’s parent firm ByteDance is needed to obey China’s rules and can be pressured to work with intelligence committee by the Chinese Communist Party. They are also worried that the app can be aimed by foreign influence campaigns, such as those performed in 2016. And they claimed that TikTok allegedly censors content believed politically responsive to the Chinese Communist Party, comprising content associated with the Tiananmen Square, Hong Kong protests, treatment of Uighurs, and Tiawanese and Tibetan independence.
