It’s Time to Get Real About TikTok’s Risks

There wasn't enough information available when the TikTok ban was on the table a couple of years ago or in remarks this summer. US officials don't seem to have a smoking gun to show the seriousness of the situation. There was a need for a better case built around it, but they didn't seem to have that case at the time. I can't say whether they will have something to show Americans or not.

A group of Republican senators led by Tom Cotton of Arkansas sent a letter to the Treasury Secretary asking about the Biden administration's delayed response to the national security and privacy risks posed by TikTok. On June 28, a group of nine Republican senators sent a letter to the CEO of TikTok asking about the company's data management practices and relationship with ByteDance. The Federal Trade Commission was urged to investigate TikTok and ByteDance by a bipartisan duo from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

In a series of responses this summer both to lawmakers and the public, TikTok has maintained that it does not and would never share US user data with the Chinese government. The company publishes a twice-annual report about government requests to remove content from the service, but it doesn't report publicly on government data requests. According to the report, the company has never fulfilled a request from China.

Byte Dance is the owner of TikTok. TikTok user data can be accessed by some Byte Dance employees. Does that mean theCCP can get that data as well? In his June 30 response to the nine Republican senators, TikTok's Chew said, "Employees outside the US, including China-based employees, can have access to TikTok US user data subject to a series of robust Cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our US- He described the layers of classification and restriction that are put in place to protect user data. They have maintained for a long time that they have not given US user data to the CCP. "TikTok is provided in the United States by TikTok Inc., which is incorporated in California and could be compelled to use it under Chinese law," said a spokeswoman for the company.