TikTok social platform has exploded during quarantine, however, rumors of the Chinese app being used as a spying tool pose a threat to the US. Read the full article below.
TikTok denies all allegations and says its data centers are located outside of China. Furthermore, they have stated that none of that data is subject to Chinese law. On the contrary, all US user data is stored in the United States, and backed-up in Singapore.
In a previous article Yaay explained the link between the Chinese app and the US government. Currently, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is investigating Bytedance's 2016 acquisition of the US app Musical.ly, which earned TikTok millions of users. CFIUS can eventually revert the transaction costing the latter those users.
TikTok has been trying to distance itself from the Chinese owners and in that attempt hired Disney (DIS) veteran Kevin Mayer as CEO in May. Despite hiring Mayer and TikTok denying accusations, and even if US investors were to buy the Chinese app from ByteDance concerns remain among US officials.