TikTok May Have Misled Congress on Handling of US User Data, Say Two Senators (msn.com) 36
An anonymous reader shared this report from the New York Times:
Two senators sent a letter to TikTok's chief executive on Tuesday, accusing the company of making misleading claims to Congress around how it stores and handles American user data, and demanding answers to more than a dozen questions by the end of next week.
The letter, from Senators Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, and Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, focused on how sensitive data about American users may be stored in China and how employees there may have access to it. The lawmakers said recent reports from The New York Times and Forbes raised questions about statements made during congressional testimony in March by Shou Chew, TikTok's chief executive, and in an October 2021 hearing involving Michael Beckerman, TikTok's head of public policy for the Americas. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
"We are deeply troubled by TikTok's recurring pattern of providing misleading, inaccurate or false information to Congress and its users in the United States, including in response to us during oversight hearings and letters," the senators wrote...
Forbes reported last month that TikTok has stored the sensitive financial information of creators, including Social Security numbers and tax IDs, on servers in China, where employees there can have access to them... The Times reported earlier in the month that American user data, including driver's licenses and potentially illegal content such as child sexual abuse materials, was shared at TikTok and ByteDance through an internal messaging and collaboration tool called Lark. The information was often available in Lark "groups" — chat rooms of employees — with thousands of members, alarming some workers because ByteDance workers in China and elsewhere could easily see the material.
The letter, from Senators Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, and Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, focused on how sensitive data about American users may be stored in China and how employees there may have access to it. The lawmakers said recent reports from The New York Times and Forbes raised questions about statements made during congressional testimony in March by Shou Chew, TikTok's chief executive, and in an October 2021 hearing involving Michael Beckerman, TikTok's head of public policy for the Americas. TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
"We are deeply troubled by TikTok's recurring pattern of providing misleading, inaccurate or false information to Congress and its users in the United States, including in response to us during oversight hearings and letters," the senators wrote...
Forbes reported last month that TikTok has stored the sensitive financial information of creators, including Social Security numbers and tax IDs, on servers in China, where employees there can have access to them... The Times reported earlier in the month that American user data, including driver's licenses and potentially illegal content such as child sexual abuse materials, was shared at TikTok and ByteDance through an internal messaging and collaboration tool called Lark. The information was often available in Lark "groups" — chat rooms of employees — with thousands of members, alarming some workers because ByteDance workers in China and elsewhere could easily see the material.
and of course facebook and co (Score:1, Troll)
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If you lie to Congress in support of the establishment narrative you'll get a book deal and a teaching position.
If you tell the truth in opposition you're looking at 18-40 years in Federal prison.
Congress can't enforce its own Contempt charges so it's not a co-equal branch.
No guns, no power. Mao conquered China with that principle.
Re: and of course facebook and co (Score:2, Interesting)
Right and what will your fat ass do with a gun when they pull you out.
The average gun owner is so obese they can't run for 5 minutes.
Simple fact the reason highly trained police miss is hitting a person is hard, and is made harder when your own body is fighting against aiming.
You want to see how well you would do in an emergency. Due 5 jumping jacks shoot twice. Due five more jumping jacks shoot 2 more times. Repeat 10 times. Note how many times you actually hit the target.
If you pass out or can't shoot
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Right and what will your fat ass do with a gun when they pull you out.
The average gun owner is so obese they can't run for 5 minutes.
More like 10 seconds.
Besides: What will your guns do against tanks, drones, F22s and helicopters than can land a missile on your ass from 10 miles away?
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About the same as Egypt and Libya's military did when the people rose up with their sticks and pots: nothing whatsoever.
We drill into our military over and over and over that they are obligated to disobey an unlawful order. And if they believe the rioters' cause is just, good luck finding a pilot who will consider that order lawful.
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We drill into our military over and over and over that they are obligated to disobey an unlawful order. And if they believe the rioters' cause is just, good luck finding a pilot who will consider that order lawful.
If the rioters are actively using weapons against the military or trying to overthrow the government then the order will be perfectly lawful.
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That didn't happen in Egypt or Libya for some reason. Perhaps people are smarter than that. And perhaps leaders just can't count on soldiers to open fire. The 'lawful order' training is really meant to press upon the military that they must follow their conscence.
I am certain it's a rare F-16 pilot that's gonna obey an order to drop a bomb on a crowd, no matter how you try to convince him. Same for an Abrahms tank crew. These are not Chinese soldiers, ready to just flatten students.
And remember, a LOT
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Most gun nuts only feel brave when they are carrying their firearm. That's not bravery, that's just weeniness masquerading as bravery.
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And most tyrannical governments only feel brave when their citizens no longer carry them.
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One guy with a gun, nominally worthless unless it's a scoped rifle and they're willing to trade their life.
A nation with guns, potentially a significant threat to fascism, but not if they're so fucking dumb they welcome it
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Yep. My first mental image when I read "lying to congress" was Zuckerburg, followed by Colin Powell, both of whom completely got away with it even though their lies were proven.
This is just more "China bad, mmmmkay" posturing.
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This is just more "China bad, mmmmkay" posturing.
If you think China isn't bad, you are working for them.
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Never underestimate someone's ability to be a complete fucking moron.
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Congress won't enforce it's own contempt charges. It very much can. The Sergeant at Arms need merely call up the Federal Marshals and they will pick up the miscreant.
Re:and of course facebook and co (Score:4, Interesting)
No, facebook and co never have. They are all part of unconstitutional citizen surveillance programs. That's what this is about from congress' standpoint. The government doesn't have access to the data TikTok collects, like they do from other social networks.
Shortest congressional hearing (Score:4)
Data stored in china? Yes
Data accessed by employees? Yes
Data accessed by Chinese government? Chinese law prevents me from answering that question, Senator.
Anything more is hot air, grandstanding and filler.
Remember Facebook (Score:2, Troll)
In 2021, whistle-blowers reported a number of 'dangerous' activities Facebook was willfully hiding from everyone. Later in the year, US senators convened a hearing and made a point of talking only about mental health.
Does not take much (Score:2)
What top secret info do they have? (Score:2, Insightful)
How exactly is that going to enable an easy China win of WW-III?
And why is it every single time there is tech that scares people they have to include "oh, and we're pretty sure there is child sexual material involved, too" with zero evidence?
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It's not WW3, it's Cold War 2. The main theaters of operation are spycraft, influence operations, trade wars, breaking social cohesion, etc.
Surely it's not hard to imagine how social media can be used there. Not to suggest this is in the realm of the theoretical, with all the documented instances of social media being used to those ends over the last decade. And that's largely by actors without direct access to the backend.
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Imagine you're a senator with access to top secret information. You're running on a platform of family and church. The CCP knows you've been watching hundreds of "hot girls dancing in bikinis" videos and threatens to release the info unless you leak documents. This is the argument from every country banning tiktok on government devices. It's been in the news so much I'm surprised you missed it.
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You are drastically understating the risk.
China was responsible for the OMB hack, so they have a list of US government employees and what agencies they applied for (along with very detailed information about them including their friends and family as well).
According to the FBI, "China is engaged in a highly sophisticated malign foreign influence campaign, and its methods include bribery, blackmail, and covert deals. Chinese diplomats also use both open, naked economic pressure and seemingly independent midd
May?? A fired exec says CCP had access to all data (Score:2)
https://www.axios.com/2023/05/... [axios.com]
TikTok DID mislead. Corrected it for you. (Score:2)
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This. But there are Chinese stooges all over this site.
India banned TikTok and TikTok DID mislead. Corre (Score:1)
India and Montana notions are simple, and India banned TikTok!
Blumenthal and Blackburn just ban it now!
meaningless dribble? (Score:1)
Fuckhead hypocrites (Score:2)
"We are deeply troubled by TikTok's recurring pattern of providing misleading, inaccurate or false information to Congress and its users in the United States" ... But when US companies that have proven links to US government spying do the same abroad, companies that have actually set the standard for abusing their users privacy, then that's perfectly fine with us. Cuz we're Murka, the most hypocritical nation on earth.