NSA chief warns TikTok could censor videos as part of Chinese influence operations | CNN Business

Washington
CNN
—

US national security officials are concerned that TikTok could use its vast global reach to shape public opinion by deleting certain videos or promoting others, the head of the National Security Agency said on Tuesday and the United States Cyber ​​Command to lawmakers.

“It’s not just the fact that you can influence something, but you can also turn off the message when you have such a large population of listeners,” Gen. Paul Nakasone said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

TikTok’s data collection and its control over the algorithm that serves users’ content are also worrisome, Nakasone said.

Nakasone’s comments follow a White House directive that gives US federal agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from government-issued devices. And they come amid a major political debate in Washington about what to do with one of the most popular apps among young Americans.

US officials have for years accused TikTok, and its Chinese parent company ByteDance, of collecting data that could enable surveillance by the Chinese government. TikTok denies the allegations and has asked the Biden administration to finalize a national security deal that would allow TikTok to continue operating in the US in exchange for greater US government visibility into how it collects and stores data on Americans .

A TikTok spokesperson said the company has been working with the US government to address national security concerns.

“Our state has been debated in public in a way that is divorced from the facts of this agreement and what we have already achieved. We will continue to do our part to deliver a comprehensive national security plan for the American people,” TikTok’s Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement.

Some House lawmakers have pushed legislation that could force the Biden administration to impose an outright ban on TikTok, but the prospects for that bill becoming law are slim.

A bipartisan Senate bill expected to be introduced Tuesday by Virginia Democrat Mark Warner and South Dakota Republican John Thune would give the Commerce Department authority to develop “mitigation measures,” including a ban, to deal with the risk represented by foreign relations. technologies

Like the U.S. government’s push to ban hardware and other equipment made by Huawei, another Chinese tech giant, U.S. officials often lack specifics when asked to show public evidence of collusion between the Chinese government and ByteDance.

“People are always looking for the smoking gun in these technologies,” NSA cybersecurity director Rob Joyce told reporters in December. “I characterize it much more like a loaded gun.”

“I wouldn’t expect individualized guidance [TikTok] to do malicious things,” Joyce said. “What worries me is the overall ability to influence on a large scale.”