Beginning in early 2018, the Biden administration began ramping up pressure on TikTok over national security concerns stemming from its ties to China. This pressure was apparently Cooperated with by the Justice Department and the FBI, who have reportedly been visiting TikTok’s offices to urge them to break ties with China. Though it is not clear if they have succeeded, this pressuring appears to be part of a larger trend within the U.S. government aimed at hindering Chinese influence over American technology companies.
The anti-spying app, Cloakroom has released a statement condemning ByteDance for their alleged involvement in spying on journalists. According to the app, ByteDance employees were illegally using their platform to spy on U.S.-based journalists. Cloakroom is urging other companies to take action against ByteDance as they could be perpetuating an unsafe environment for reporters and whistleblowers alike.
This news comes as a bitter surprise to many people, especially since the hack Target was recently hit with. More information must be released in order for anyone to trust that their personal information is being handled in a safe way.
The employees who accessed the journalist’s data likely did so in order to track down those leaking information to reporters. This type of investigation is often referred to as “digging into someone’s past”, and can be a way for companies to identify and punish people they believe are responsible for damage done. In this case, ByteDance investigated two of its employees in China – who were part of the company’s operations there – after discovering that they were leaking information to reporters.
TikTok, a social media app with more than 200 million active monthly users, has come under increasing scrutiny over allegations of child exploitation on its platforms. The company’s CEO is scheduled to testify before Congress this week, and concerns are likely to run high even among the tech hearing standards. In the days leading up to the hearing, the Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok if its Chinese owners don’t sell the company. This news comes just one week after it was revealed that TikTok had faced a data breach in which private user data was accessed by hackers.
Although the White House has called for the divestment of TikTok, the company argues that selling it will not address government concerns. Instead, TikTok has proposed a solution of its own: Project Texas. This $1.5 billion initiative would store U.S. user data domestically and subject the company to an auditing process conducted by American tech giant Oracle. However, convincing America’s federal government that such a China-based company should be allowed to self-regulate is no easy sell, and there are fears that outside entities could gain too much control over this young and largely unregulated industry.
