U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) recently urged the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to formally investigate TikTok and the platform’s parent company, ByteDance.
Warner and Rubio, respective chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, forwarded the request to FTC Chair Lina Khan following reports that indicated the social media platform had permitted TikTok engineers and executives in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to access private data of domestic users despite repeated claims to lawmakers and users that the data was protected.
“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 senators wrote. “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.”
The senators said that recent updates to TikTok’s privacy policy heighten the concern that data of domestic users may be vulnerable to extrajudicial access by security services controlled by the CCP.
“A series of national security laws imposed by the CCP, including the 2017 National Intelligence Law and the 2014 Counter-Espionage Law, provide extensive and extrajudicial access opportunities for CCP-controlled security services,” the senators concluded. “Under these authorities, the CCP may compel access, regardless of where data is ultimately stored. In light of repeated misrepresentations by TikTok concerning its data security, data processing, and corporate governance practices, we urge you to act promptly on this matter.”