Two U.S. senators have asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate TikTok’s reported misrepresentation of the company’s relationship with ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including Beijing-based ByteDance Technology, which is partially owned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The concern, however, is about more than ownership.
According to leaked audio from internal TikTok meetings, ByteDance’s China-based employees regularly had access U.S. customers’ private information between September 2021 and January 2022.
In light of these reports, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have asked the FTC to investigate TikTok and ByteDance.
Warner, chairman of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Rubio, the panel's vice chairman, sent a letter to Federal Trade Commission Chairwoman Lina Khan requesting that the FTC start a formal investigation. TikTok has an estimated 750 million users each month, including 85 million Americans.
“We write in response to public reports that individuals in the People’s Republic of China [PRC] have been accessing data on U.S. users, in contravention of several public representations, including sworn testimony in October 2021,” the July 5 letter states. “In light of this new report, we ask that your agency immediately initiate a Section 5 investigation on the basis of apparent deception by TikTok, and coordinate this work with any national security or counterintelligence investigation that may be initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice.
“TikTok’s trust and safety department was aware of these improper access practices and governance irregularities, which, according to internal recordings of TikTok deliberations, offered PRC-based employees unfettered access to user information, including birthdates, phone numbers, and device identification information,” the senators wrote. “Recent updates to TikTok’s privacy policy, which indicate that TikTok may be collecting biometric data such as faceprints and voiceprints [i.e. individually identifiable image and audio data, respectively], heighten the concern that data of U.S. users may be vulnerable to extrajudicial access by security services controlled by the CCP.”
Khan did not respond to a request for a comment. Juliana Gruenwald Henderson of the FTC Office of Public Affairs said the agency was aware of the senators’ request.
“I can confirm the FTC has received the letter but do not have any additional comment,” Gruenwald Henderson told Globe Banner. “Since FTC investigations are nonpublic, we generally do not comment on whether we are investigating a particular matter.”
In 2020, President Donald Trump expressed concern about TikTok. He floated the idea of either banning it from the United States or requiring it to merge with a U.S. company.
Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said TikTok could be “feeding data directly to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Despite Trump signing an executive order aimed at the social media app, nothing changed. He left office without anything being enforced, and President Joe Biden issued an order reversing Trump's order, saying that “rigorous, evidence-based analysis” was needed to determine if there was significant risk from such apps.
Still, the clock is ticking on TikTok, some observers believe.
“If I was ByteDance, I wouldn’t be breaking out the champagne,” James Andrew Lewis, senior vice president and director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Wired.com. “TikTok could be standing perfectly still, but the landscape is moving around them, mainly because of Chinese activity.”
TikTok spokeswoman Maureen Shanahan told Buzzfeed News the media platform was making every effort to ensure security for its users.
“We know we’re among the most scrutinized platforms from a security standpoint, and we aim to remove any doubt about the security of U.S. user data,” Shanahan said. “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.”
According to a July 5 news release issued by TikTok vice president Michael Beckerman, who also serves as head of public policy for the Americas, TikTok has created a new division called U.S. Data Security.
It will “bring heightened focus and governance to our ongoing efforts to strengthen our data protection policies and protocols, further protect our users, and build confidence in our systems and controls in the United States.”
Warner and Rubio are asking the FTC to make sure about these efforts.