Tiktok risks being used to divide West, warns FBI chief
TIKTOK is at risk of being exploited by the Chinese government to divide Western societies and control people’s phones, the head of the FBI has said.
Christopher Wray told US senators that the wildly popular video app could be used as a “tool” by Beijing against Americans in a way that “screams out with national security concerns”.
He told the Senate Intelligence Committee that this manipulation might even happen without the knowledge of intelligence agencies.
When asked by Senator Marco Rubio whether Tiktok could be used to spread poisonous and divisive messages to Western users, Mr Wray said: “Yes … We’re not sure that we would see many of the outward signs of it happening if it was happening.
“This is a tool that is ultimately within the control of the Chinese government. It’s the control of data to conduct all sorts of big data operations. It’s the control of the recommendation algorithm, which allows them to conduct influence operations. It’s control of the software, which allows them to then have access to millions of devices.”
It comes as Tiktok fights to defend itself against government bans and accusations that it could hand over users’ data to China. Yesterday the company, owned by Beijing’s Bytedance, pledged to strengthen controls on personal information by storing data locally and agreeing to security audits.
“Project Clover” is designed to rebuff allegations that China has access to its 150m European users.
Mr Rubio called Tiktok “one of the most valuable surveillance tools on the planet”, saying: “They can collect our data, manipulate information, poison the minds and feed garbage into the minds of millions of people. This is a substantial national security threat for the country, of a kind that we didn’t face in the past.”
The Biden administration this week endorsed proposed legislation that would give the White House the power to ban Tiktok and other technologies.
The bill, sponsored by Democratic and Republican senators, would apply to communications services from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.