US Army Looks Into TikTok

The U.S. Army is looking into Chinese social media app TikTok for security risks, Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

What Happened

The assessment comes as a response to the New York Senator Schumer’s letter to McCarthy earlier this month.

Schumer raised concerns over the “national security risks” posed by the army’s attempts at recruiting American teenagers through the TikTok app.

The Senate Minority leader said that the Chinese laws require all companies in the country to “support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.” 

There’s no mechanism for the companies to challenge any request they may disagree with, Schumer said — questioning if the army considered alternative options before settling on TikTok.

“National security experts have raised concerns about TikTok’s collection and handling of user data, including user content and communications, IP addresses, location-related data, metadata, and other sensitive personal information,” Schumer said.

The senator wrote a similar letter to the Director of National Intelligence in October, Forbes reported at the time. 

TikTok: No Chinese Interference 

TikTok has previously denied any Chinese government’s interference in its operations.

“We have never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content, and we would not do so if asked. Period,” the video app owned by IT company ByteDance said in a statement in October.

TikTok pointed out that all of its data centers are located outside of China, and it’s not subject to China’s data law. The company said it stores the data of its U.S. customers in the U.S., with backup storage in Singapore.