- Brendan Carr, commissioner of the FCC, is urging Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores
- Carr has sent the firms a letter citing numerous reasons, such as lawsuits against the popular video-sharing app
- A report from BuzzFeed News this month is what made Carr reach out to Google and Apple
- The report includes internal TikTok meets where employees discuss Beijing-based employees are repeatedly accessing US user data
- Carr says this is a serious national security threat and is giving the companies until July 8 to remove TikTok or explain why they did not comply
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is calling on Google and Apple to ban TikTok in a bid to stop the Chinese-owned company from accessing ‘swaths of data.’
Brendan Carr, commissioner of the FCC, posted on Twitter urging the tech giants to remove the video sharing platform ‘from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices.’
Carr included a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook, expressing why TikTok needs to be removed, citing a report from last week that ‘shed fresh light on the serious national security threats posed by TikTok.
And he is giving the tech giants until July 8 to remove TikTok or explain why they chose not comply.
The report, published by BuzzFeed News, highlights leaked audio from more than 80 internal TikTok meetings that reveal China-based employees have repeatedly accessed US user data.
‘It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk due to its extensive data harvesting being combined with Beijing’s apparently unchecked access it that sensitive data, Carr wrote in the letter.
‘But it is also clear that TikTok’s pattern of conduct and misrepresentation regarding the unfettered access that persons in Beijing have to sensitive US user data puts it out of compliance with the policies that both of your companies require every app to adhere to as a condition of remaining available on your app store.’
DailyMail.com has contacted TikTok, Google and Apple for comment and has yet to receive a response.
The letter continues with ‘some concerning’ evidence about why the China-owned app should be removed.
This includes an incident in March 2020 when researchers discovered the app, through Apple’s App store, was accessing users’ sensitive data – passwords, cryptocurrency wallet addresses and personal messages.
