FBI Director Chris Wray expressed his fears about the popular social media platform TikTok—and how it could be used by the Chinese government for nefarious purposes—during a speech at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy on Friday. Since TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, the app’s recommendation algorithm could be controlled by that country’s government, enabling them to “manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.” China could also gather data on its American users for espionage, Wray added. “All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that’s very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us,” he said. Brendan Carr, one of five commissioners for the Federal Communications Commission, has already tried to get the popular app banned. TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas insisted in a Senate hearing in September that the company doesn’t keep user data in China or share it with ByteDance, claiming China’s government has no access to it. “We will never share data, period,” Pappas said.
