The wildly popular Chinese TikTok app is rife with espionage issues linked straight to the Beijing government as well as inappropriate depictions of children hiding in plain sight.
A new report from Forbes cites recent statements by federal communication officials advising the government to ban the app to safeguard U.S. citizens’ private information.
The Federal Communication Commission’s (FCC) Brendan Carr admitted the agency cannot regulate the video-sharing app. Data gathered from its over 200 million U.S. downloads by law must be shared with the Chinese Communist Party if requested.
Former President Donald Trump attempted late in his administration to ban the platform but ran into fierce legal resistance.
Now the concern is so dire that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) are pushing legislation to prohibit TikTok in the country for obvious security reasons.
Officials with the Chinese company issued a statement that they continue to work with the American government on security issues.
TikTok Has A Child Pornography And Chinese Espionage Problem: Report https://t.co/pg4oi3Sn0g
— T.S. Waters (@Never_Alt_Left) November 15, 2022
They directly responded to Carr’s criticism by asserting he has no role in their discussions with federal officials. TikTok also claimed that his comments came outside of his duties as an FCC commissioner.
Also of major concern are the child sex abuse materials that reportedly are within easy access for those who know how to find them. Forbes reported that a user sees items that read as advertisements but are really portals straight to illegal images.
The outlet’s explosive report said that predators are easily able to get by algorithms by using these “post-in-private” accounts.
An investigator with the magazine declared that the material was easy to get to, and some required a promise to upload images.
The International Centre on Sexual Exploitation’s Haley McNamara told Forbes that the “closed spaces or semi-closed spaces” attract those who network in abusive materials. She said they are even used for “selling or advertising people for sex trafficking.”
A platform clearly connected to Chinese communists that gathers private data available to Beijing is against national security interests. That same platform playing a role in spreading the most vile and indecent images only makes it criminal that the government has not already stepped in.
