FCC Commissioner urges US government to ban TikTok

One of the five Federal Communication Commissioners (FCC) in the US has urged the Council on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) to implement a ban on TikTok.

The popular app with 200 million downloads has previously raised concerns with law makers and regulators on what the Chinese-owned app does with its users’ data.

Speaking with Axios, Brendan Carr one of five the commissioners said, "I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban.”

CFIUS is currently in talks with the apps’ Chinese parent company ByteDance on whether or not it can be divested from its owner to an American company to keep it operational in the US.

Carr has said he is concerned about US data going back to China and the risk of a “state actor” using TikTok to covertly influence political processes in the country.

He told Axios, “There simply isn't a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party].”

A TikTok representative spoke to the publication and retorted Carr’s remarks, “Commissioner Carr has no role in the confidential discussions with the US government related to TikTok and appears to be expressing views independent of his role as an FCC commissioner.

"We are confident that we are on a path to reaching an agreement with the U.S. Government that will satisfy all reasonable national security concerns."

In September, TikTok and the Biden administration drafted a preliminary agreement to resolve national security concerns but are still deciding on a potential agreement.

TikTok has long faced scrutiny from US lawmakers, who have questioned the Chinese-owned app's safeguards of user data.

It has been over two years since a US national security panel ordered parent company ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that US user data could be passed on to China's communist government.

TikTok is one of the world's most popular social media apps, with more than 1 billion active users globally, and counts the United States as its largest market.