Lawmakers upset with TikTok spying on journalists

Washington lawmakers expressed outrage that social media company ByteDance was using TikTok to spy on journalists, reports Emily Baker-White of Forbes.

Baker-White reports, “In a statement to Forbes, Senator Ron Wyden (D-WA) endorsed those concerns: ‘Using customer data to spy on journalists and employees is a scandal that casts doubt on every promise TikTok has made about protecting personal information. Sadly, it’s not the first time a tech company has abused the massive store of information it holds about its customers. As long as corporations have access to detailed data about their users’ movements, personal contacts and interests, companies and governments will be tempted to misuse it.’

“This scandal could not have come at a worse time for TikTok, which is currently negotiating a national security contract with the multi-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to address national security concerns raised by the app. Although TikTok was reportedly close to a deal with CFIUS this past summer, national security agencies and the DOJ have expressed increasing concern about a deal that would allow ByteDance to continue to own TikTok. Meanwhile, legislators have begun moving forward with their own sanctions of TikTok, including a unanimously passed Senate bill to ban the app on government devices, and a bipartisan, bicameral proposal that would ban the app for all users in the United States.”

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