FBI raise 'National Security concerns' over TikTok

FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday that the bureau has "national security concerns" about popular short-form video hosting app TikTok as the Chinese-owned company seeks U.S. government approval to continue operating in the country.

Speaking during a U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee hearing on "worldwide threats to the homeland," Wray said the FBI's concerns about TikTok include "the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users."

There is also concern, Wray said in response to a question, that the Chinese government could "control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations ... or to control software on millions of devices, which gives the opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices."

In written testimony, Wray called the foreign intelligence and economic threat from China "the greatest long-term threat to our nation's ideas, innovation, and economic security."

But he declined to answer in an open session a lawmaker's question about whether the Chinese government has been leveraging TikTok to collect data about U.S. citizens.