There are concerns about TikTok, the FBI - International

US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray has said that his agency has national security concerns about the Chinese short video app TikTok. During the hearing of the Homeland Security Committee of the US House of Representatives, Director FBI said that the threats facing the internal security from around the world include concerns related to Tik Tok. In the hearing, the director of the FBI said that there is a possibility that the Chinese government can control the data of millions of users who use it through TikTok. In response to a question, Christopher Ray said that through Tik Tok, the Chinese government can influence the operations of various devices by controlling algorithm recommendations or controlling the software used on hundreds of millions of devices. This could result in China intruding into users' personal devices. In his written statement, the director of the FBI has said that there are economic and espionage threats from China. However, he refrained from answering the question in the open hearing about whether the Chinese government is collecting the data of US citizens through Tik Tok or not.

TikTok's relationship with the Chinese government has been the focus of debate among US lawmakers and officials for years. On national security concerns, former President Donald Trump issued an executive order in 2020, after which Action Talk was banned in the United States. However, TikTok filed a lawsuit to block Trump's executive order.

Last year, President Joe Biden rescinded Trump-era guidance and directed the Treasury Department to review security concerns about the app. The matter was referred to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) for review. Working under the auspices of the US State Department, this committee examines the security implications of foreign investment in US companies. The committee is looking into TikTok's continued operations in the US and concerns about it. It should be noted that the FBI's Foreign Investment Unit is also part of the CFIUS investigations. In this regard, the director of the FBI said that our opinion will also be taken on any agreement on this matter.

Although TikTok denies ties to China's Communist Party, members of Congress in the US have expressed concern over the possibility of the app collecting data on US users. At the hearing, Republican Senator Diana Harsherg cited a recent Forbes article. The article stated that ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, plans to use the app to track the movements of certain Americans. TikTok denied the allegations in the article and said in a statement that it does not collect the precise GPS location of US users. In June 2022, TikTok also gave a written assurance to the members of the US Congress regarding the data security of US users. America's famous TV documentary program 60 Minutes said in one of its reports that Tik Tok is a fake. One of them is a very limited and Chinese-only version of Spinach for educational purposes, while the opium version, i.e. an opium-type Tik Tok, is for the rest of the world.

Children spend hours on the version provided in Western countries, while in China children under the age of 14 are banned from watching Tik Tok for more than 40 minutes. According to 60 Minutes, even in these forty minutes, they can only watch scientific experiments, museum exhibits, patriotic and educational videos. Children generally don't like to eat spinach or green vegetables even though they are healthy. Even if they are fed these, they do not get used to them. Opium, in contrast, is a sign of addiction. On the basis of this difference, the different versions of Tik Tok have been named by Sixty Minute.