FBI Director Raises National Security Concerns Over TikTok

Speaking to United States lawmakers on Tuesday, FBI Director Chris Wray on Tuesday said that Chinese companies  "do whatever the Chinese government wants them to in terms of sharing information or serving as a tool of the Chinese government. And so that's plenty of reason by itself to be extremely concerned."

Former President Donald Trump in 2020 attempted to ban WeChat and TikTok through a series of executive orders which were challenged in court. His successor Joe Biden in June 2021 rescinded the orders.

The U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews U.S. acquisitions by foreign acquirers for potential national security risks, in 2020 ordered parent company Chinese-based ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that U.S. user data could be passed on to the communist government.

According to Wray, risks include "the possibility that the Chinese government could use [TikTok] to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations."

CFIUS and TikTok have been in talks for months aiming to reach a national security agreement to protect the data of TikTok's more than 100 million users.

Wray told lawmakers that FBI's foreign investment unit was part of the CFIUS process. "Our input would be taken into account in any agreements that might be made to address the issue," he added.

In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said: "As Director Wray specified in his remarks, the FBI's input is being considered as part of our ongoing negotiations with the U.S. Government. 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."