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As the debate around potentially banning TikTok comes to a head, two members of the Senate have asked for the Congress TikTok briefing to be declassified. TikTok, the popular Chinese video-sharing platform, has been in hot water for a long time now. Rumors have been flying around for years that the app is Chinese spyware. For instance, some argue it is impossible for a Chinese platform to not hand over user data to the Chinese government. Senators Blumenthal and Blackburn now believe they have something concrete that the American public needs to be made aware of.
Senate bill and the Congress TikTok briefing
The House of Representatives has recently passed a bill that could see TikTok banned in the States. TikTok has been brought up as a national security concern before, but this bill is the closest anyone has come to banning it. The main concerns always raised center around TikTok being a tool to spy on users. Hence, ever since American users first picked up the popular app, it has faced scrutiny, like many other Chinese products and services.
Congress has just received a briefing by intelligence agencies on what they’ve learned about TikTok. This briefing apparently left some senators shocked, and others not convinced of any danger posed by the app. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn had this to say.
“We are deeply troubled by the information and concerns raised by the intelligence community in recent classified briefings to Congress. TikTok is a weapon in the hands of the Chinese government, and poses an active risk to our democratic institutions and national security.” The bill, if passed into law, will force TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the platform within six months or face a ban in the States.
Is TikTok actually Chinese spyware?
The main question that comes to mind after all this drama is whether TikTok is actually spyware. The claim lacks concrete proof as of yet. Nonetheless, the public does not know what the classified briefing to Congress contained. Representative Sara Jacobs, speaking to the Associated Press, thinks the entire thing is blown out of proportion.
“Not a single thing that we heard in today’s classified briefing was unique to TikTok. It was things that happen on every single social media platform,” she said. What Representative Jacobs was talking about here was likely the app permissions each app requires. Less tech-savvy folk often mistake these requirements for something more sinister. Take, for example, an app that has a photo-taking feature. It would require access to the camera. The wording of this permission leads people to believe that the app is always using their camera to spy on them.
If the briefing is declassified, the public will get a look at what intelligence officials have found. Applying different perspectives to the data may lead to a more rational decision.
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