TikTok Gaslighting Governments on Data Protection, FCC Commissioner Warns Australian Senate

CANBERRA, Australia—The United States federal communications commissioner (USFCC) has warned the Australian government not to trust TikTok to keep any user data it collects out of the hands of the Chinese communist regime.

USFCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said that TikTok could not be trusted to keep data safe from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the U.S. government’s experience with the company on data privacy was nothing short of ‘gaslighting.’

The commissioner was appearing before the Australian government’s senate select committee on foreign interference through social media, which runs from April 20-21.

The committee is looking at ways to stop social media apps from promulgating foreign interference in the country and has focused primarily on apps that have deep-seated connections to authoritarian regimes.

Calling the company a “unique threat to national security,” Carr said that despite the U.S.’s best efforts to establish if there were barriers to China’s data oversight, including looking at TikTok’s data onshoring initiatives like the U.S. Project Texas, TikTok staff have remained tight-lipped about the possibility of CCP officials accessing private data.

“With TikTok, we’ve had this years-long approach that strikes me as sort of nothing short of gaslighting in terms of their misrepresentations. That’s why I say there’s something very unique there. That requires serious action,” Carr said.

“Project Texas has been floated. One of the most significant things was at a recent congressional hearing; you have the Democrat ranking member of the House Committee say that he was doubtful that even if we put Project Texas in place, it would have sufficient protections against the CCP having control over TikTok, and he’s right.”

Stronger Privacy Laws Not Enough

Carr told the inquiry that no data privacy laws would be sufficient to stop TikTok surveillance and intelligence gathering, pointing to the European Union, which he said had the gold standard of privacy data laws yet has begun a concerted action to address TikTok.

TikTok faces being banned in the European Union if it does not step up efforts to comply with EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) well ahead of the Sept. 1 deadline, European Commissioner Thierry Breton told TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, according to an EU readout of a video call between the two.

“We will not hesitate to adopt the full scope of sanctions to protect our citizens if audits do not show full compliance,” Breton said.

But Carr said that even if countries do adopt better baseline privacy protections that apply to all social media, it still will not address “the unique type of threats that we’re seeing with respect to TikTok.”

“The privacy protections that are in place right now in Europe are held up by a lot of advocates as a gold standard GDPR or other protections? And yet we’re seeing right now Europe engaged in concerted action to address TikTok.”

Additionally, he said that TikTok staff themselves are not confident that its parent company Bytedance and, in turn, the CCP would be able to be stopped from accessing personal data.

Carr cited a 2022 Buzzfeed article that leaked internal audio from TikTok staff meetings where staff noted that even if Project Texas was put in place, it would remain to be seen if Beijing would continue to access the data.

“So TikTok officials themselves don’t believe that Project Texas is actually going to safeguard data in terms of access from inside China,” Carr said.

“When a senior Tiktok official, I believe their CEO, was testifying here in our Senate, was asked point blank, ‘Do you share sensitive U.S. user data with personnel in Tiktok or Bytedance in Beijing who are themselves members of the CCP?’ And that official declined to answer that question.

“I think a lot of these concerns could have been put to rest if they’d answered pointedly either no, or frankly, perhaps it’s yes, here’s the protections put in place. But the evasive nature of these answers over the years is deeply concerning.”

TikTok Denies Data at Risk

However, a TikTok spokesperson assured The Epoch Times that Project Texas, like Project Clover in Europe, would protect users data.

“Under Project Texas, all protected U.S. data will be stored exclusively in the U.S. and under the control of the U.S.-led security team,” the spokesperson said.

“This eliminates the concern that TikTok U.S. user data could be subject to Chinese law.

“Similarly, under Project Clover, we’re enhancing our approach to European data security by further tightening data access controls, working with a European third-party company to audit, monitor, and provide independent verification of our approach, as well as incorporating further privacy-enhancing technologies into our approach.”

Project Clover is a program focused on creating a secure enclave for European TikTok user data.

FCC Wants TikTok Ban, But Biden Administration May Not Be Onboard

The FCC commissioner believes that the only way to handle TikTok is to impose a country-wide ban.

However, some experts believe that may be difficult.

Cybersecurity expert Rex Lee told NTD’s China in Focus program that he believes there is little will in Washington to ban TikTok.

“One good thing about this last TikTok congressional hearing is there was a lot of bipartisan support to ban it, which is a positive thing. But then here we are, two or three weeks later, and there’s no action being taken,” Lee said.

He called such hearings “political theatre,” saying, “What I find out about these congressional hearings, they’re more about politics than resolve. We see these executives go before Congress; half of the politicians in the congressional hearings are addressing the real problems, the other half isn’t, and they never seem to come to full resolution.”

Lee, a security adviser at My Smart Privacy, argued that obstacles stem from lawmakers still using the platform.

“A lot of people don’t realize this, but over 30 members of the House and Senate are on TikTok,” he said.

He singled out the report by Axios, which states that President Joe Biden and his campaign are planning on teaming up with social media “influencers” to reach young voters.

According to the article, several TikTok “influencers” are among the “hundreds” with whom the Biden group would work.

“It was just in the news the other day that the Biden administration had TikTok influencers, along with Instagram and Facebook influencers, at the White House to spread information about the Biden administration’s platform across the social media platform,” Lee said.

“So when you have congressional hearings, when you have congressional members of Congress and the Senate utilizing TikTok as well as the president, I don’t see how it’s gonna get banned anytime soon,” he added.

Hannah Ng and Tiffany Meier contributed to this report.