FCC Commission Brendan Carr has penned a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai asking them to ban TikTok.
TikTok is once again in hot water following leaked audio recordings that show its employees in China have full access to data for US users, something the company has repeatedly denied. In the wake of the revelations, Commissioner Carr is calling for action, going so far as to insinuate the platform is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Commissioner Carr then goes on to highlight the company’s “pattern of misrepresentations” that have led to bipartisan concern and bans by the US military. He also points out that it “collects search and browsing histories, keystroke patterns, biometric identifiers, draft messages and metadata, plus it has collected the text, images, and videos that are stored on a device’s clipboard.”
TikTok has gone to great lengths to distance itself from the privacy scandals it has had, scandals which Commissioner Carr points out one by one.
At one point, a company executive even went so far as to provide sworn testimony before Congress that US data was handled by a “world-renowned, US-based security team.” The leaked audio recordings painted a far different picture, showing that the “world-renowned” US team didn’t have the ability or permission to handle US data without involving their colleagues in China.
It’s truly amazing how often TikTok has broken its promises and run afoul of privacy rules and regulations. If Commission Carr has his way, TikTok may finally pay the price.