Tech

Five ways TikTok is seen as a threat to US national security


TikTok is a hugely popular video-sharing platform, but some in the US see it as a threat to national security.

TikTok is a hugely popular video-sharing platform, but some in the United States see it as a threat to national security.

Many in the United States consider TikTok, the very popular video-sharing app owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, as a threat to national security.

Here’s a look at five reasons why:

Data sharing

TikTok — like rivals Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube — thrives on data, and there seems to be no limit to the number of young users willing to share about themselves on this super-addictive app.

TikTok critics worry that all this information is being processed by a Chinese company in China, where the Communist Party reigns supreme.

But some experts believe that the threat is overblown and that nefarious actors can find their way into the data warehouse regardless of who owns the platform and where it is based.

“If we’re talking about US citizen data, it’s the Wild West,” said Justin Sherman, a senior fellow at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy.

“There are very few regulations, companies always collect tons of data, whether they Foreign companies or US companies.”

Tiktok said it has committed to moving all US users’ data to US-only servers in a project called “Project Texas”.

Spy

TikTok, like all apps, has the ability to open access to the user’s entire phone.

“Whenever you have an app on your phone, there’s the ability to use that app to connect access to other things on your phone,” said Michael Daniel, CEO of CyberThreat Alliance. phone.

This could include “surreptitiously turning on the device’s microphone or camera without the user’s knowledge,” adds Daniel, a former cybersecurity coordinator at the US National Security Council.

Etay Maor, senior director of security strategy at Cato Networks, pointed out Pegasus, software created by an Israeli tech company that is used by governments around the world to spy on critics. and opponents.

“Maybe with TikTok we just click and install the Chinese version of Pegasus on our device… I think that’s the US government’s concern,” Maor said.

censorship

Again potential threat mentioned by cybersecurity experts is the Chinese government’s ability to censor content on TikTok to protect the Communist Party’s priorities.

“The idea is that the Chinese government will eventually tell TikTok outside of China that you are not going to show anything that supports Tibet or Taiwan and thereby shape the information environment,” Daniel said.

Tiktok insists that it has never interfered with content in a way that pleases the Chinese government, but given the level of censorship pervasive in China, analysts warn that the threat makes Beijing rely on TikTok is there to exist.

“If you look at how the Chinese government censors information, suppresses the press and the like in the country, it’s really not too far off to say that there is a risk associated with the same happening. on TikTok elsewhere,” he said. Sherman.

Wrong information

Another fear is that the Chinese government could use TikTok as a vehicle to disrupt US society, reenacting online campaigns launched by Russia in 2016 before the US presidential election.

Now, research published by Global Witness and the Cybersecurity for Democracy group at New York University shows that TikTok has failed to filter out a large amount of election misinformation in the weeks leading up to the election. midterms of the United States last month.

The researchers found that in the test, TikTok “performed the worst among all tested platforms”.

In response, TikTok has put in place safety measures regarding election content and requests government and politician account to be verified.

Just… China?

Some experts wonder if TikTok can do anything to address concerns given its origins in China, especially with Republicans retaking the US House of Representatives in January.

Most of the arguments against TikTok come from the Republican Party, which has a history of being tougher on Beijing than the Democratic Party.

Republicans are also putting pressure on Democrats as US President Joe Biden negotiates a long-term confidentiality agreement for the app to continue operating under Chinese ownership in the United States.

According to Politico, the Biden administration is divided over whether to force TikTok’s Chinese owner to divest from its US operations, casting doubt on the proposed compromise.

© 2022 AFP

quote: Five ways TikTok is considered a threat to US national security (2022, December 21) accessed December 21, 2022 from https://techxplore.com/news/2022-12-ways -tiktok-threat-national.html

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