A member of the Federal Communications Commission has asked Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing concerns that the popular Chinese-owned video app could send US data back to Beijing.
In a letter to the companies released Tuesday, Brendan Carr, a Republican commissioner, said he believes “TikTok’s pattern of behavior and misrepresentations regarding the free access that individuals in Beijing have to sensitive U.S. user data” undermine the standards of Apple and Google violated and that TikTok should be removed from the app stores.
Mr. Carr’s request is unlikely to gain traction because the FCC doesn’t regulate app stores and the committee’s agenda is largely set by the Democratic chairman. But it shows continued pressure on Chinese tech companies from officials in Washington.
Policymakers have long worried that TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, could expose its data to the Chinese government. Former President Donald J. Trump tried to force ByteDance to sell the app or would be removed from app stores in 2020. At one point, the Trump administration announced a deal that will see Oracle, the US cloud computing company, part of the company. The sale never happened.
The Biden administration has considered other measures to keep US data out of China, but has not publicly urged TikTok to cut ties with the Chinese owner.
TikTok insists it is taking steps to prevent employees in China from accessing its data. Shortly before a recent news release revealed it was struggling to do so, it said it routed all of its US users’ data through servers operated by Oracle.
Brooke Oberwetter, a spokeswoman for TikTok, said the company was in talks with lawmakers who had raised questions about its data practices. Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, declined to comment. Apple and the FCC have not responded to requests for comment.
In his letter, Mr. Carr said he did not believe TikTok’s efforts would make a difference.
“TikTok has long claimed that its US user data is stored on servers in the US, yet those statements did not protect against access to the data from Beijing,” he wrote. Indeed, TikTok’s statement that ‘100 percent of U.S. user traffic is routed to Oracle’ says nothing about where that data might come from.”
