TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps in the U.S. right now. According to the company, TikTok had approximately 656 million global users. This figure was projected to increase by around 15 percent year-over-year, reaching 755 million users in 2022.
News Talk 105.9 WMAL host Vince Coglianese spoke to Federal Communication Commission Chairman Brendan Carr Monday about privacy concerns related to the app after a published report indicated that parent company ByteDance planned to use Tik Tok to monitor the physical location of specific American citizens.
“The reports said there was a team within Tik Tok called the Internal Audit and Risk Control Department and it’s led by an executive in Beijing,” said Coglianese. “And they say the team planned to collect Tik Tok data and the location of a U.S. citizen who had an employment relationship with the company.”
Carr told Coglianese that he has been very focused on this issue now for months with mounting evidence that Tik Tok is actively monitoring its users and collecting data from them.
“There’s a lot of different bombshell revelations and even from someone that is used to reading scary stuff about what Tik Tok is doing, I have to tell you when I saw this new report flash across the screen, I was really taken aback by it,” said Carr.
Carr said the U.S. Government needs to continue to monitor Tik Tok’s habits and create regulations that block the company from collecting data.
