Tensions between the US and China continue to escalate with allegations of spying on technology companies. While the US’s eyes have been on TikTok for a long time, the infrastructure that can ensure the complete ban of the application in the country was created the other day.
With the RESTRICT (Restriction) bill, it was foreseen that all foreign technologies should be banned when necessary. While support for the law is increasing day by day, a critical statement came from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
US still thinks TikTok is ‘agent’ of Chinese government
FBI Director Christopher Wray answered senators’ questions at the Intelligence Committee and stated that TikTok could be a tool for China. Republican Senator Marco Rubio asked whether China could expand its control over data with TikTok and become an important tool of influence in the event of possible war in the Taiwan Strait.
Here’s the response Marco Rubio got from the FBI Director:
“What I think Americans need to understand is that the most fundamental piece of blocking each of the risks and threats you speak of is something very sacred in our country: the difference between the private sector and the public sector.
This is a line not in the way the Chinese Communist Party works.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray, in other words, explained that there is no distinction between the private sector in China and the Chinese Communist Party. This means that private companies—like ByteDance—have to collaborate with the Chinese government at will.
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