[ad_1]
FIRST ON FOX: A pair of prime House Republicans are calling for the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to transient Congress on ongoing federal probes into the favored Chinese social media platform TikTook.
The Republican lawmakers — House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, who chairs the panel’s Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Subcommittee — penned a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday, demanding details about their roles within the federal authorities’s nationwide safety evaluate of TikTook.
“The FBI and other U.S. national security agencies have raised alarms about the potential that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) could use TikTok for nefarious purposes,” they wrote to Wray and Mayorkas. “The concerns associated with the proliferation of TikTok are real and growing. DHS, the Transportation Security Administration, and the U.S. Department of Defense have banned the use of TikTok on official mobile devices due to security concerns.”
“We are concerned about TikTok’s alignment with the interests of the PRC, as it broadcasts anti-American propaganda, suppresses critics of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who raise concerns regarding human rights abuses, and apparently allows for the glorification of foreign terrorists,” Green and Pfluger continued.
VULNERABLE DEM SENATOR PROMOTES TIKTOK ACCOUNT AFTER SAYING HE HAD ‘SERIOUS CONCERNS’ ABOUT CCP TIES
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., left, and Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas, who chairs the panel’s Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence Subcommittee, proper, are pictured. (Getty Images)
The two GOP leaders stated it was vital for the FBI and DHS to present a briefing given the shortage of particulars in regards to the businesses’ position in present investigations and to higher perceive their general efforts to tackle China’s “espionage activities against the United States within the homeland.”
TikTook, which is owned by Beijing, China-based agency ByteDance, has been the topic of debate in recent times over its potential nationwide safety dangers. The video-sharing platform, which has greater than 150 million U.S. customers, has vital ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and specialists have warned it might gather and retailer delicate knowledge about customers.
HARRIS DODGES MULTIPLE QUESTIONS ON TIKTOK REGULATION, BRINGS UP RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE
Wray acknowledged in late 2022 that the FBI itself had considerations in regards to the widespread use of TikTook in America.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, left, seems on as FBI Director Christopher Wray, proper, testifies earlier than a House Committee on Homeland Security listening to in November 2022. (SAUL LOEB/AFP by way of Getty Images)
“We do have national security concerns at least from the FBI’s end about TikTok,” Wray stated throughout a Homeland Security Committee listening to on the time.
“They include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users,” he added. “Or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose. Or to control software on millions of devices, which gives it opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices.”
EXCLUSIVE: JEWISH EMPLOYEES AT TIKTOK SHARE DETAILS OF HOSTILE, ANTISEMITIC WORK ENVIRONMENT
In their letter, Green and Pfluger famous that they’re conscious the Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS) is conducting a evaluate of TikTook. CFIUS is an interagency taskforce relationship again to the Nineteen Seventies that’s overseen by the Department of the Treasury, consists of each the DHS and FBI, and is tasked with reviewing sure overseas investments that will pose a nationwide safety menace.
In this picture illustration, a crossed-out TikTook emblem is seen displayed on a smartphone with the United States flag within the background. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket by way of Getty Images)
And the Republicans famous examples of how TikTook might suppress content material essential of the Chinese Communist Party, however permit content material praising terrorism. For instance, the app censors content material about China’s genocide of Uyghur Muslims and different ethnic teams, however for days final 12 months allowed ant-American content material praising and sympathizing with Osama Bin Laden.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“TikTok is a national and personal data security threat that glorifies terrorists and espouses an anti-American agenda,” Pfluger stated in a press release to Fox News Digital. “The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have a responsibility to address the Chinese Communist Party’s espionage activities against the United States, and I’m proud to lead this effort with Chairman Green.”
The FBI declined to remark and DHS stated it might reply to the letter by way of official channels.
[ad_2]
Source hyperlink