The Biden administration is escalating its pressure campaign against TikTok, threatening a U.S. ban on the world’s most popular app if TikTok is not split with Chinese ownership.
Public concern in the current administration about the hit app has increased significantly in recent days. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the US government is once again trying to separate the app from its Chinese owner, demanding a sale through the Commission on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
TikTok has opposed the new White House request, arguing that the proposed solution does not address the concerns of the U.S. government. It’s been audited by US-based tech giant Oracle — but claims it offers more solutions.
“If the goal is to protect national security, the sale will not solve the problem. Changing ownership will not impose new restrictions on data flow or access,” said Maureen, a TikTok spokeswoman.・Shanahan told TechCrunch. “The best way to address national security concerns is to protect U.S. user data and systems transparently on a U.S. basis, with strong third-party oversight, review, and verification. It’s implemented.”
The program, known as Project Texas, is part of an ongoing TikTok glamor attack in the US that seeks to represent TikTok’s US operations as transparent and accountable. The campaign will involve about $1.5 billion in infrastructure investment and corporate restructuring to build a firewall between the company’s U.S. operations and Chinese ownership.
In an interview with the journal, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew claimed that Project Texas would keep US data out of the hands of the Chinese government. He declined to answer whether the founder of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, would accept the sale.
“We welcome feedback on what other risks we’re talking about that aren’t being addressed by this,” Chu said in an interview. I never heard of it.”
TikTok’s national security story began during the Trump administration. Trump administration threats against the company eventually led him to plans to force TikTok to sell its U.S. business to Oracle in late 2020. At the time, TikTok also rejected his acquisition offer from Microsoft, but ultimately didn’t sell to Oracle either.
When Biden took office the following year, White House priorities changed, and the deal was shelved indefinitely after a series of successful court challenges by TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
Last year, TikTok’s bizarre relationship with Oracle turned a new page, as the company migrated US-based users’ data to Oracle’s domestic servers. Around the same time, a shocking BuzzFeed article documented an internal discussion at TikTok where he admitted that Chinese employees had open access to US users’ data, in a report that ran counter to the company’s reassurances. bottom.
Since then, the Biden administration has voiced its own concerns about the hit Chinese app that took the world by storm and ousted US-based social media incumbents.
Emily Baker-White, who published a number of enlightening articles on TikTok and national security concerns on Thursday, said both the FBI and the Justice Department are investigating concerns that the company is monitoring American journalists. The UK also announced a TikTok ban on government devices on Thursday. This is a move previously implemented by the US government. In recent months, some US-based universities have similarly adhered to guidance issued by state-level executive orders restricting apps.
At a recent Senate intelligence hearing, FBI Director Chris Wray expressed his agency’s own concerns about the app’s relationship with authoritarian states that are increasingly hostile to the United States, saying the Chinese government confirmed his belief that he could force TikTok’s U.S. business to give it control over software that affects millions of Americans. If that happens, Wray argued, there may be no “external signs” that the app has been compromised.
“What is so sacred in our country—the difference between the private and public sectors—is a non-existent line in the way the Chinese Communist Party operates,” Lei said.
The timing of a new effort by the Biden administration to sound the alarm about TikTok is probably not random. Next week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing, he said, is scheduled for March 23, and the now-republican-led committee will address TikTok’s “consumer privacy and data security practices, the impact of the platform on children, and its relationship with the Chinese Communist Party.” relationship will be investigated.
“Americans need to understand how these actions affect their privacy and data security, and how TikTok helps protect children from online and offline harm,” said committee chair Cathy McMorris-Rogers. It’s worth knowing what you’re doing.
