Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray. (REUTERS/Michael A. McCoy)
The FBI has major national security concerns about a potential deal that would allow the Chinese-owned video app TikTok to continue operating in the US, bureau Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Tuesday.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has expressed its concerns to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is considering the deal, Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee during a hearing on threats to the US.
"We do have national security concerns, obviously from the FBI’s end, about TikTok. They include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users, or control the recommendation algorithm which could be used for influence operations if they so choose, or to control software on millions of devices,” Wray said.
President Joe Biden’s administration is currently weighing a proposal to allow TikTok to continue to operate in the US under its ownership of Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. The arrangement would route all US user traffic through servers maintained by Oracle Corp., with the US-based database giant auditing the app’s algorithms.
