US Army conducting TikTok security assessment after senator’s warning
- Top Democrat Charles Schumer had asked for investigation of possible risks in military’s use of popular Chinese-owned video app to recruit US teens
- Company says US user data is stored in the United States, with backup redundancy in Singapore
The US Army is undertaking a security assessment of China-owned social media platform TikTok after a Democratic lawmaker raised national security concerns over the app’s handling of user data, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said on Thursday.
Speaking to reporters at an event at the American Enterprise Institute think tank, McCarthy said he ordered the assessment after the top Democrat in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer, asked him to investigate the possible risks in the military’s use of the popular video app for recruiting American teenagers.
“National security experts have raised concerns about TikTok’s collection and handling of user data, including user content and communications, IP addresses, location-related data, metadata, and other sensitive personal information,” Schumer wrote in a November 7 letter to McCarthy.
Schumer said he was especially concerned about Chinese laws requiring domestic companies “to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party”.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co’s US$1 billion acquisition of US social media app Musical.ly.
