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FBI Director Chris Wray recently raised national security concerns about TikTok, warning that the Chinese government, which does not share American values, controls the app.
The Associated Press reports that, while speaking at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Wray said the Chinese government could use the app to collect personal information on American users — information that could be used for nefarious purposes. “All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values,” Wray said, “and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us.”
The A.P. notes that President Donald Trump’s administration attempted to ban TikTok two years ago and that current U.S. officials are in talks with the app’s parent company Bytedance about solutions to America’s security worries.
TikTok acknowledged working with the U.S. in a statement to the A.P.:
“As Director Wray has previously said, the FBI’s input is being considered as part of our ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Government,” TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in an emailed statement. “While we can’t comment on the specifics of those confidential discussions, we are confident that we are on a path to fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns and have already made significant strides toward implementing those solutions.”
As the A.P. mentioned, TikTok has answered questions regarding American security concerns before, with Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas telling the U.S. senate last September that it “will never share data, period.”
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