According to the report, TikTok’s performance was due, in part, to the security vul- nerabilities in TikTok’s code and the abundance of data trackers riddling the platform.14 Particularly troubling is the extent to which TikTok conceals atypical elements of its collection practices. [...] FBI Director Christopher Wray appeared to explain why in a public speech more than two years later, asserting that the Chinese government both controls ByteDance and has the “ability to control the recommendation algorithm.”28 In a later hearing in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2023, Director Wray testified that the Chinese government could control the software and data of millions. [...] In two years, the percentage of adults who get their news from TikTok on a regular basis rose from only 3 percent in 2020 to 10 percent of American adults in 2022—roughly tripling this audience.30 Now, nearly a quarter of adults in the United States under the age of 30 claim to regularly get their news from TikTok, according to the same survey.31 This creates yet another vector for the CCP through. [...] The CCP could add TikTok and other “open-source” data to cross-reference data from the Chinese hack of the Office of Personnel Management detected in 2014, which exposed the Social Security numbers, addresses, and family contacts of thousands of U. [...] government employees, among other sensitive information.42 This data can be added to that from other hacks linked to the Chinese state, such as the hack of the Marriott hotel system in 2018, the Anthem health care system hack from 2015 and the Equifax financial services hack in 2017 to enable the CCP to track where U.
- Pages
- 15
- Published in
- United States of America
