WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Chris Wray is elevating nationwide safety issues about TikTok, warning Friday that management of the favored video sharing app is within the fingers of a Chinese language authorities “that does not share our values.”
Wray mentioned the FBI was involved that the Chinese language had the power to manage the app’s advice algorithm, “which permits them to govern content material, and in the event that they wish to, to make use of it for affect operations.” He additionally asserted that China might use the app to gather knowledge on its customers that might be used for conventional espionage operations.
“All of this stuff are within the fingers of a authorities that doesn’t share our values and that has a mission that is very a lot at odds with what’s in the very best pursuits of america. That ought to concern us,” Wray advised an viewers on the College of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford Faculty of Public Coverage.
These issues are just like ones he raised throughout congressional appearances final month when the difficulty got here up. And so they come throughout ongoing dialogue in Washington concerning the app.
TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance. A TikTok spokesperson didn’t instantly return an e-mail looking for touch upon Friday.
However at a Senate listening to in September, TikTok Chief Working Officer Vanessa Pappas responded to questions from members of each events by saying that the corporate protects all knowledge from American customers and that Chinese language authorities officers haven’t any entry to it.
“We are going to by no means share knowledge, interval,” Pappas mentioned.
Involved about China’s affect over TikTok, the Trump administration in 2020 threatened to ban the app inside the U.S. and pressured ByteDance to promote TikTok to a U.S. firm. U.S. officers and the corporate are actually in talks over a doable settlement that will resolve American safety issues, a course of that Wray mentioned was happening throughout U.S. authorities companies.
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Observe Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP