FCC Commissioner urges Google and Apple to remove TikTok from app stores

Brendan Carr revealed the letter he sent to Apple and Google, asking them to remove TikTok from their app stores, in a tweet. The agency's senior Republican commissioner made reference to a recent BuzzFeed News report that looked at leaked audio recordings from 80 internal TikTok gatherings. According on those leaked audio tapes, China-based staff of TikTok parent company ByteDance had repeatedly accessed private information on users in the United States.

According to BuzzFeed News, a member of TikTok's Trust and Safety department said during a meeting in September 2021 that "everything is observed in China." In another session, a director exclaimed that a Beijing-based engineer known as "Master Admin" has "access to everything." TikTok announced that it switched 100 percent of US user traffic to new Oracle Cloud Infrastructure just hours before BuzzFeed News published its story. It's one component of the company's resolve to address issues raised by US regulators concerning how it deals with data from users there.

In his letter, Carr mentioned other studies revealing "appalling evidence and judgments regarding TikTok's data management practices", including prior instances when researchers discovered that the app might bypass Android and iOS security measures to access sensitive data. He also referred to TikTok's decision in 2021 to pay $92 million to settle dozens of claims from minors accusing it of collecting personal information without consent and selling it to advertisers.

The letter, signed by Ed Markey and the other four Democratic FCC Commissioners, demands that Google and Apple remove the app from their platforms if they refuse to do so. That said, only one person signed Ed Markey's letter — it doesn't appear that the other Democratic FCC Commissioners were involved. We've contacted all parties to inquire whether they have an official position on the subject.