Brendan Carr, FCC Commissioner, is now doubling down his call for the U.S. to ban TikTok-based in Beijing. Carr described the popular social networking app as “digital fentanyl.”
“At the end of the day, TikTok is China’s digital fentanyl,” Carr said Friday in an appearance on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom.”
“A lot of people look at TikTok and they think it’s just a fun application for sharing dance videos or other funny videos. But that’s just the sheep’s clothing. Underneath all of it, it operates as a very sophisticated surveillance app. Again, it’s not the videos, but it’s pulling everything from search and browsing history, potentially keystroke patterns, biometrics, including face prints and voice prints.”
TikTok officials insist that none this information makes it to China, the TikTok headquarters. a bombshell NPR news storyAccording to an internal communication, the Chinese government has allegedly seen personal data from U.S. users this summer.
“That’s a big risk for four or five different reasons, including espionage and other activity. And, really, every week, there’s a new shoe that drops in this store. There’s another report that officials in ByteDance, the parent in Beijing, are attempting to surveil the location of specific Americans through this application,”Dana Perino, Carr’s host, was informed by Carr.
Carr also spoke about a clip taken from “60 Minutes,”Tristan Harris, cofounder of the Center For Humane Technology explained in this interview that the global version is quite different from the one in China.
“I don’t see a path forward technically where we can assure ourselves that the data isn’t going to flow back to China and, similarly, that they’re not going to use the algorithm for foreign influence campaigns here,”He said.
Carr responded that Carr doesn’t believe the ban should ever be implemented. “within the next few weeks,”He hopes to hear a final decision from Treasury Department. “The number two at DOJ [the Department of Justice] reportedly has said that she does not believe that the preliminary deal that’s in place right now is tough enough on China. And I think she’s probably right,”He said.
The whole segment can be viewed here Here.
