The Denver Gazette

DELETE TIKTOK?

The Denver Gazette

Sen. Michael Bennett urges Tim Cook, Sundar Pichai to immediately remove TikTok from Apple, Google stores as it poses a risk to national security.

U.S. Senator Michael Bennet wants Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores immediately, saying TikTok poses an “unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.”

“Like most social media platforms, TikTok collects vast and sophisticated data from its users, including faceprints and voiceprints. Unlike most social media platforms, TikTok poses a unique concern because Chinese law obligates ByteDance, its Beijing-based parent company, to ‘support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work,’” Bennet wrote CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai Thursday.

In his letter, Bennet said TikTok’s extensive reach in the U.S. is dangerous, arguing that the app’s “aggressive data collection” and “obligations under Chinese law threaten U.S. security.”

“Beijing’s requirement raises the obvious risk that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could weaponize TikTok against the United States, specifically, by forcing ByteDance to surrender Americans’ sensitive data or manipulate the content Americans receive to advance China’s interests,” Bennet wrote in the letter.

The senator added: “No company subject to CCP dictates should have the power to accumulate such extensive data on the American people or curate content to nearly a third of our population.”

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2023-02-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-02-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281728388666409

The Gazette, Colorado Springs