Expert: TikTok could be a risk to national security

TL;DR

Concerned experts point out that TikTok’s parent company, the Beijing-based ByteDance, has been accused of working with the Chinese government to censor content and could also collect sensitive data on users.Christopher Wray, FBI director, spoke publicly on the issue last month, warning that control of the popular social media app is in the “hands of a government that doesn’t share our values.”Cybersecurity expert Anton Dahbura, executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, discusses the issue here:Critics of TikTok warn that it could be used to collect data on millions of users.The Chinese government has a long history of intellectual property theft, so the scope of what they’re looking for goes well beyond classified information or disruptive attacks, but extends to industrial espionage to obtain proprietary information.Many people don’t realize that they, their friends, family, neighbors, or associates are likely to have something that the Chinese government wants and that can compromise or damage the United States.Although the legal aspects of this are outside of my areas of expertise, I would venture to say that all bets are off when it comes to the Chinese government gaining access to Americans’ personal information, regardless of the attempts to set up a legal framework for that access."

Like summarized versions? Support us on Patreon!