Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has called on Apple and Google to ban the popular Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok from their app marketplaces, arguing that it is sending sensitive user data on American citizens to Beijing.
Carr, who is one of the most vocal opponents of Big Tech censorship on the FCC, nonetheless thinks that the threat of TikTok is great enough to warrant an app store level block.
“TikTok is not just another video app,” said Carr in a Twitter thread. “That’s the sheep’s clothing.”
“It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing. I’ve called on Apple & Google to remove TikTok from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices.”
“TikTok doesn’t just see its users dance videos. It collects search and browsing histories, keystroke patterns, biometric identifiers, draft messages and metadata, plus it has collected the text, images, and videos that are stored on a device’s clipboard.”
Tim “Apple” Cook (Amy Sussman/Getty)
Google boss Sundar Pichai ( Drew Angerer /Getty)
“Tiktok’s pattern of misrepresentations coupled with its ownership by an entity beholden to the CCP has resulted in U.S. military branches and national security agencies banning it from government devices. Bipartisan leaders in both the Senate and House have flagged concerns.”
Launched in 2016, TikTok has enjoyed soaring popularity across the western world, particularly with young people. But its success has drawn scrutiny, particularly over the app’s ownership by the Chinese company ByteDance.
TikTok along with dozens of other Chinese websites and apps have been banned by the government of India, which cited privacy and sovereignty concerns. President Trump attempted to ban the app while he was in office, but his efforts were stalled by a federal judge and later revoked by President Biden.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election. Follow him on Twitter @LibertarianBlue.
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