Tik Tok in the crosshairs of possible international security violation investigation

Tik Tok, launched in 2016 and owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, may not be a household name the way Apple, Microsoft, Google, YouTube, or Facebook are. However, this company is getting quite famous, especially among teenagers all over the world, as a company that allows you to record short and snappy videos that you […]

Tik Tok, launched in 2016 and owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, may not be a household name the way Apple, Microsoft, Google, YouTube, or Facebook are. However, this company is getting quite famous, especially among teenagers all over the world, as a company that allows you to record short and snappy videos that you can easily share across social media networks. In fact, Tik Tok is so popular that the company has some 110 million downloads in the US to date and 1 billion worldwide. According to NakedSecurity.Com on 4 July 2019, “It (Tik Tok) was the most popular app on Apple’s App Store for the whole year and fourth most popular on Google Play. In October (of 2018), it was the most downloaded app on both Apple and Google’s stores – in other words, it was more popular, globally, than the powerhouses of YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.”

Tik Tok itself is located in the US and does not operate directly in China. Because it is owned by a Chinese company, it could be forced by the Chinese government to turn over user data (such as location data, cookies, metadata, and so on), irrespective of the fact that the company’s servers are stored in the United States! This part worries US lawmakers.

Two U.S. senators, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, and Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, wrote a letter last week Wednesday to Director of the US National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, calling for an investigation into Tik Tok. The senators have requested that U.S. intelligence officials examine the wildly popular, Chinese-owned social media app for potential “national security risks.” “With over 110 million downloads in the U.S. alone, Tik Tok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore. Given these concerns, we ask that the Intelligence Community conduct an assessment of the national security risks posed by Tik Tok and other China-based content platforms operating in the U.S. and brief Congress on these findings,” the senators’ letter says.

The senators also point out that Tik Tok’s parent company ByteDance in China uses its platforms, including Tik Tok, “as part of an artificial intelligence company powered by algorithms that ‘learn’ each user’s interests and preferences through repeat interaction.” They warn that ByteDance, is “still required to adhere” to Chinese law. “Security experts have voiced concerns that China’s vague patchwork of intelligence, national security, and cybersecurity laws compel Chinese companies to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” the letter said. “Without an independent judiciary to review requests made by the Chinese government for data or other actions, there is no legal mechanism for Chinese companies to appeal if they disagree with a request.” The senators also said they are concerned that Tik Tok was censoring content “deemed politically sensitive” to Beijing. In September, The UK Guardian revealed that the app’s moderators actively censor contents relating to Tibetan and Taiwanese independence, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the treatment of the Uighur Muslims and the banned Falun Gong religious group. This suggests that the company easily dances to the tune from China, which worries the senators. “The platform is also a potential target of foreign influence campaigns like those carried out during the 2016 US election on US-based social media platforms that reportedly helped elect Donald J. Trump as the president of the US.”

Schumer and Cotton are not alone in asking that Tik Tok be investigated. On 9 October 2019, another US lawmaker, Marco Rubio, wrote to the US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asking that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States investigate TikTok for potential national security threats and censorship as well. “These Chinese-owned apps are increasingly being used to censor content and silence open discussion on topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese Government and Community Party,” Rubio said.

What else do we know about Tik Tok? Though the company may only be moderately technically capable compared to typical American social media companies such as like Facebook, its app is capable of letting you create short, looping clips of music, dance, or comedy videos that you can share on the social networks. The app reportedly helped create an entire industry of viral stars and influencers, and is reportedly used by several US Democratic Party presidential candidates and major US news organizations. TikTok collects your device’s IP addresses, location, and specific machine information.

Prior to rebranding, Tik Tok was known as “Musical.ly,” which apparently had a serious filthy side. With a few mouse clicks, you could find videos that contain pornography or those promoting anorexia, suicide, and self-harm. There was also a chat feature that exposed kids to strangers. TikTok settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for $5.7 million for collecting data on child users without parental consent, back when the app was called Musical.ly. It is reportedly the largest civil penalty the agency ever collected for a children’s data-privacy case.

Obviously, Tik Tok is not the first Chinese company to be targeted by US lawmakers. That reputation belongs to ZTE, Huawei, and others.