U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco advised Americans on Thursday not to use the China-owned app, TikTok.
During an event on disruptive technologies by nation states, Monaco expressed her concern that the owner of TikTok, ByteDance, does not have our best interests in mind in terms of “security concerns.”
“I don’t use TikTok and I would not advise anybody to do so because of these concerns,” she said.
At the event, which took place at Chatham House in London, she said the issue is worry that China’s government could gain access to U.S. data and information. “Its national security law requires any company doing business in China to make its data accessible to the government,” Monaco said. “So, if a company is operating in China and is collecting your data, it’s a good bet that the Chinese government is accessing it.”
The Department of Justice has been trying to create regulations on TikTok’s security access with the Committee on Foreign Investment, sources say. In hopes of reaching an agreement with the department, a TikTok spokesperson told Insider, “Project Texas puts U.S. user data out of reach of any foreign government,” the spokesperson said. “The swiftest and most thorough way to address national security concerns about TikTok is for (the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) to adopt the proposed agreement that we worked with them on for nearly two years.”
Project Texas was proposed in the summer of 2020 when former President Donald Trump threatened to ban the app in the U.S.
According to Lawfare, the project was proposed due to the ongoing investigation of the app's use with U.S. information being sent to China. Under the rules of Project Texas, TikTok in the U.S. “will be governed by an independent board of directors, which TikTok will nominate and CFIUS will review. The board will report to (the committee) and not to ByteDance or to the global TikTok entity. Oracle will oversee data entering the entity and data exiting the entity so as to ensure that the data flows do not pose national security risks.”
“The bottom line is China has been quite clear that they are trying to mold and put forward the use and norms around technologies that advance ... and privilege their interests — those interests that are not consistent with our own,” Monaco said during the panel discussion Thursday.
Justice officials also announced the launch of the Disruptive Technology Strike Force to unite law enforcement under the Department of Justice “to strike back against adversaries trying to siphon our best technology.”