FCC Petitions Apple And Google To Remove TikTok From Their App Stores
A member of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States has asked Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores.
Brendan Carr, a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, highlighted TikTok’s threat to data security concerns in an official letter sent to Apple and Google.
According to him, the wildly popular video app ByteDance, owned by the Chinese company, “is more than just a video app. That’s the wolf in sheep’s clothing “. He goes on to say in a viral Tweet that TikTok “harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing.”
Brendan Carr addressed his letter to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet. The letter cited reports and other developments that rendered TikTok in violation of the two companies’ app store policies.
“TikTok is not what it appears to be on the surface. It is not just an app for sharing funny videos or meme. That’s the sheep’s clothing,” he emphasized in the letter. “At its core, TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data.”
TikTok has yet to respond to this news.
Brendan’s Tweet, on the other hand, has since gone viral globally, garnering numerous comments from social media users.
His letter has received over 6000 retweets and over 1000 comments on Twitter.
TikTok is not just another video app.
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) June 28, 2022
That’s the sheep’s clothing.
It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing.
I’ve called on @Apple & @Google to remove TikTok from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices. pic.twitter.com/Le01fBpNjn
Brendan, who also works as a lawyer, has been granted interviews with news outlets to defend his letter.
Watch some of his interviews below to learn why TikTok is dangerous.
.@FCC Commissioner @BrendanCarrFCC on TikTok: “It's pulling biometric data, face recognition, voice print, browsing history, keystroke patterns, location information. What we know is that if the CCP… gets all this data, they have all sorts of ends they can achieve." pic.twitter.com/vJ1wrqKM5j
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) June 30, 2022
Is time up for TikTok? FCC Commissioner @BrendanCarrFCC is asking Apple and Google to remove the platform from their app stores, calling it "a sophisticated tool" for harvesting user data to be seen in China. pic.twitter.com/EJ6RiNdr3u
— TechCheck (@CNBCTechCheck) June 29, 2022
