According to “Forbes” magazine, bodies conduct an investigation with Chinese ByteDance and investigate possible theft of user data
The FBI and the US Department of Justice are investigating the Chinese company ByteDance, responsible for TikTok, for alleged use of the app to spy on US journalists.
The investigation was reportedly being conducted by the Fraud Section of the Department of Justice with the Attorney General’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. The agencies requested information from ByteDance about access by TikTok employees to users’ location and private data. In December, the company admitted that had improperly accessed data from US journalists. The information is from the magazine forbes.
At the same time, according to the report, the FBI would also be conducting investigations to investigate undue surveillance practices of the application.
questioned by forbesByteDance denied that it continued with the practice.“We strongly condemn the actions of the individuals involved and they are no longer employed by ByteDance. Our internal investigation is still ongoing and we will cooperate with any official investigations when they are brought to us.”said a spokeswoman for the company.
TikTok – an app focused on short videos– has recently become the target of widespread distrust among Western government officials. O CanadaThe European Commission and the U.S already determined the exclusion of app from official devices due to the risk of theft of sensitive data.
Restrictions drove TikTok considering a formal separation from ByteDance to meet requirements to remain in the US, where it has over 100 million active users. Failure to comply with the requirement could lead to the White House banning the service from the country.
The social network’s security is being audited by the US Committee on Foreign Investment, linked to the Treasury Department. The Chinese company has agreed to implement improvements related to data privacy and usage time.
China rejects the allegations and alleges that the US government “spread misinformation”presents no concrete evidence of illegality and defames TikTok to harm a non-US competitor’s product.
“China always believes that data security should not be used as a tool to abuse the concept of national security and state power to harm foreign companies”said the spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbin, on Thursday (16.mar).
#FBI #Justice #Investigate #Alleged #TikTok #Spying
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