FBI Director Chris Wray raised national security concerns about TikTok on Friday, warning that control of the famous social network belongs to a Chinese government that does not share the same values as the United States.
Wray noted that US federal police are concerned that the Chinese have the ability to control the app’s recommendation algorithm, allowing them to “manipulate the content and, if they want, use it to influence operations.” .
The FBI official also noted that China may use the video-sharing social network to collect data from its users, which can be used for spying operations.
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“All these things are in the hands of a government that does not share our values and that has a mission that is at odds with what is best for the United States. That should concern us,” Wray said during a hearing at the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.
These concerns are similar to those the FBI director had raised during appearances before the US Congress in November when the issue was raised.
TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. A spokesperson for this social network did not immediately respond to these statements, the Associated Press (AP) agency reported.
In September, during a Senate hearing, TikTok’s chief operating officer, Vanessa Pappas, assured that the company protects all US user data and that authorities linked to the Chinese government do not have access to it.
“We will never share data, period,” Pappas stressed.
Concerned about China’s influence on TikTok, the Trump administration threatened in 2020 to ban the app in the US and pressured ByteDance to sell TikTok to a US company.
US officials and the company are now in talks about a possible deal that would address the security concerns of Americans, a process that Wray said was underway at US government agencies, led by Joe Biden.
Source: Observadora
