Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) has asked the Federal Trade Commission to explain what it is doing to prevent adolescent TikTok users from being exposed to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) propaganda and the app’s problematic data procedures.
“Given its connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the way it collects and controls sensitive personal information, TikTok poses one of the greatest long-term threats to the health, safety, and privacy of millions of Americans,” Mr. Risch said in his letter.
He asked Ms. Khan a number of questions and requested a “prompt response” by Oct. 30. The lawmaker wants to know what measures the FTC is taking to safeguard children’s data and keep them safe from potentially harmful video trends, and he also wants to know what steps are being taken to stop “the development of algorithms that directly promote CCP propaganda.”
“TikTok is built like an indoctrination machine, and its user base is comprised of one of the most impressionable and vulnerable populations: children,” Mr. Risch said. “The nature of TikTok’s application and its content are tailor-made to appeal to younger generations.”
Security Concerns
A Forbes study published in June found that some information was housed within China’s borders, despite repeated assertions under oath by TikTok officials that the data of U.S. customers was maintained outside of China.“While almost every company collects various types of data, TikTok’s substantial size and the Chinese Communist Party’s ability to seize and exploit this data at any time creates the perfect storm for concern,” Risch wrote in his letter.
According to the lawmaker’s letter, despite the fact that close to 45 percent of Americans use the app, roughly three in five think it poses a national security threat.
Other Concerns About the App
Some senators are worried that the Chinese-owned video-sharing app would swamp the American market with its e-commerce business because of TikTok’s new purchasing platform. ByteDance is rumored to be launching a new program in August to grow TikTok’s e-commerce presence in the United States.Some reports indicate that TikTok hopes to compete with Temu and Shein, two other Chinese e-commerce platforms, which have had tremendous success in the United States by selling low-priced products created in China straight to customers.
“TikTok will follow in the path blazed by Shein and Temu. That is, it will flood the U.S. market with slave-made goods, bypassing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act by keeping shipments below the $800 de minimis threshold for customs inspection,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told The Epoch Times.
“This will undermine American businesses, because who can compete with slave labor and duty-free entry? Worse, it will make American citizens complicit in the Chinese Communist Party’s genocide in Xinjiang.”
Nearly 20 states in the union have either banned or put some sort of restriction on the app use for government-controlled devices following testimony before Congress of TikTok’s potential exploitation by Mr. Wray.
Montana went even further, passing a law to completely ban TikTok starting January 2024. The legislation prohibits tech companies, like Apple and Google, from allowing people within the state to download TikTok through their app stores.