Former US Security Officials, Experts Reserve Concerns Over TikTok Compromising National Security

Former national security officials and other experts found that TikTok users would still be exposed to hacking and spying by China even if the U.S. spared the video platform from a total ban in the country, Bloomberg reported.
The Justice Department reviewed an accord that would keep China's ByteDance Ltd's popular video-streaming app accessible to millions of U.S. users.
TikTok has been under U.S. scrutiny since 2019 over concerns of espionage or other harmful purposes.
Also Read: Needham Considers It Futile For Meta To Compete With TikTok, YouTube, Amazon, Google
TikTok was confident of fully satisfying every reasonable U.S. national security concern.
TikTok routed every U.S. user traffic through servers maintained by Oracle Corp ORCL for audit of the app's algorithms.
While ByteDance has tried to distance itself from Chinese state influence, President Xi Jinping has launched a sweeping crackdown on private enterprises, particularly in the tech sector.
U.S. and China's relations hit the rocks since the pandemic further disrupted the semiconductor supply chain triggering an industry crisis.
The U.S. and other countries started consolidating their semiconductor position by investing in the domestic manufacture of chips to reduce reliance on China.
U.S.-issued export controls restricted the sale of semiconductors made with U.S. technology without a valid export license.
Meta Platforms Inc META has faced a tough time competing with TikTok, which succeeded in winning young subscribers from the former with its short-video format.
Photo by solen-feyissa via Unsplash