Ban TikTok app from Apple App Store and Google Play Store by July 8, says US FCC

FCC commissioner urged Apple and Google to ban TikTok app from their app stores. Here’s why.

Google and Apple have been asked to remove TikTok from their app stores by July 8. (Pixabay)

Will TikTok vanish soon from Google's Play Store and App Store of Apple? Well, that's what a Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission wants! Brendan Carr, the FCC commissioner urged Apple and Google to ban TikTok app from their app stores over data security concerns. TikTok is owned by the Chinese parent company ByteDance, which was targetted when Donald Trump was president over national security concerns.

Brendan Carr tweeted, "TikTok is not just another video app. That's the sheep's clothing. It harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show is being accessed in Beijing." He informed that he called on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores for its pattern of surreptitious data practices. He has also shared a letter along with the tweet on Tuesday which detailed out the reasons why Apple and Google should consider removing TikTok app.

Carr said in the letter that the video-sharing app TikTok has collected an abundance of sensitive data about US users. Moreover, he warned that this date could be accessed by ByteDance staff in Beijing. Shockingly, it's not just the dance videos of users that TikTok can access, it collects search and browsing histories, keystroke patterns, biometric identifiers, draft messages, and metadata, plus it has collected the text, images, and videos that are stored on a device's clipboard, Carr mentioned.

In addition to this, the letter also mentioned many other controversies that the video-sharing platform had to go through in the last couple of years. This includes the transfer of US data to servers in China, users data access, and how the Indian government banned the app in the country.

He asked Apple and Google to remove the TikTok app from their app stores by July 8. Else, they will have to explain the separate reasons while explaining the basis for not acting in the mentioned manner by July 24.