US FCC chief urges Apple, Google to remove TikTok from app stores

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
29 Jun 23:27

One of the FCC's commissioners sends a message to the CEOs of Apple and Alphabet via Twitter, citing reports that placed TikTok in "violation" of the two companies' app store policies.

US FCC chief urges Apple and Google to remove TikTok from app stores.

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in the United States has asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing data security concerns related to China.

The wildly popular short video app is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, which has come under scrutiny in the United States under President Donald Trump.

What happened?

Brendan Carr, one of the FCC's commissioners, posted a message to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai on Twitter. The message cited reports and other developments that rendered TikTok in violation of the two companies' app store policies.

"TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funny videos or memes. That's the sheep's clothing," he said in the letter. "At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data."

CNBC's requests for comment were not immediately responded to by Alphabet, Apple, or TikTok.

TikTok is not just another video app.
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. pic.twitter.com/Le01fBpNjn
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) June 28, 2022

Background

Carr's letter, dated June 24 and printed on FCC letterhead, stated that if Apple and Alphabet do not remove TikTok from their app stores, they must provide him with statements by July 8.

The statements should explain "the basis for your company's conclusion that the surreptitious access of private and sensitive US user data by persons located in Beijing, coupled with TikTok's pattern of misleading representations and conduct, does not run afoul of any of your app store policies," he said.

Carr was appointed to the FCC by Trump in 2018 for a five-year term. Jessica Rosenworcel, the commission's chair, was confirmed by the Senate in December to serve another five-year term.

His letter cited a BuzzFeed News report from earlier in the month that said recordings of TikTok employee statements indicated engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022. The BuzzFeed report included a statement from a TikTok spokesperson.

What did the report say?

It said, "We know we're among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of US user data. That's why we hire experts in their fields, continually work to validate our security standards and bring in reputable, independent third parties to test our defenses."

TikTok announced on June 17, the same day as the BuzzFeed report, that it was routing all US user traffic to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and was migrating US users' private data from its own data centers in the United States and Singapore to Oracle cloud servers in the United States.