{"id":216232,"date":"2024-03-22T23:10:40","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T23:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/22\/senators-ask-intelligence-officials-to-declassify-details-about-tiktok-and-bytedance\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:20:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:20:05","slug":"senators-ask-intelligence-officials-to-declassify-details-about-tiktok-and-bytedance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/22\/senators-ask-intelligence-officials-to-declassify-details-about-tiktok-and-bytedance\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators ask intelligence officials to declassify details about TikTok and ByteDance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>As the Senate <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/house-passes-bill-that-could-ban-tiktok-144805114.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:considers;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:1;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"><\/a> the bill that would force a sale or ban of TikTok, lawmakers have heard directly from intelligence officials about the alleged national security threat posed by the app. Now, two prominent senators <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.blumenthal.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press\/release\/blumenthal-and-blackburn-urge-declassification-of-tiktok_bytedance-information-over-national-security-concerns\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:are asking;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:2;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"><\/a> the office of the Director of National Intelligence to declassify and make public what they have shared.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are deeply troubled by the information and concerns raised by the intelligence community in recent classified briefings to Congress,\u201d Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn write. \u201cIt is critically important that the American people, especially TikTok users, understand the national security issues at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The exact nature of the intelligence community&#8217;s concerns about the app has long been a source of debate. Lawmakers in the House received a similar briefing just ahead of their vote on the bill. But while the briefing seemed to bolster support for the measure, some members said they left unconvinced, with one lawmaker <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/the-case-against-the-tiktok-ban-bill-161517973.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:saying;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:3;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"><\/a> that \u201cnot a single thing that we heard \u2026 was unique to TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to <a data-i13n=\"cpos:4;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2024\/03\/21\/senators-briefing-tiktok-spy-data-tracking-security\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Axios;cpos:4;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"><em><\/em><\/a>, some senators described their briefing as \u201cshocking,\u201d though the group isn\u2019t exactly known for their particularly nuanced understanding of the tech industry. (Blumenthal, for example, <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:5;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/facebook-instagram-mental-health-senate-hearing-210317155.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:once pressed;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:5;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"><\/a> Facebook executives on whether they would \u201ccommit to ending finsta.\u201d) In its report, <em>Axios <\/em>says that one lawmaker \u201csaid they were told TikTok is able to spy on the microphone on users&#8217; devices, track keystrokes and determine what the users are doing on other apps.\u201d That may sound alarming, but it\u2019s also a description of the kinds of <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:6;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2014-08-10-the-facebook-messenger-switch-is-annoying-but-not-evil.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:app permissions;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:6;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"><\/a> social media services have been requesting for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>TikTok has <a data-i13n=\"elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:7;pos:1\" class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/tiktok-ceo-to-congress-bytedance-is-not-an-agent-of-china-173741845.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:long denied;elm:context_link;elmt:doNotAffiliate;cpos:7;pos:1;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"><\/a> that its relationship with parent company ByteDance would enable Chinese government officials to interfere with its service or spy on Americans. And so far, there is no public evidence that TikTok has ever been used in this way. If US intelligence officials do have evidence that is more than hypothetical, it would be a major bombshell in the long-running debate surrounding the app.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/senators-ask-intelligence-officials-to-declassify-details-about-tiktok-and-bytedance-180655697.html?src=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] As the Senate the bill that would force a sale or ban of TikTok, lawmakers have heard directly from intelligence officials about the alleged<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":216233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216232"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334842,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216232\/revisions\/334842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}