US FCC commissioner asks Apple, Google to remove TikTok from their app stores

Brendan Carr, a commissioner of the United States Federal Communications Commission, has written asking Apple and Google to remove TikTok’s app from their app stores over data security concerns. The popular short-form video app is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, which had earlier faced pressure from former US President Donald Trump over national security concerns. It should be noted that the “request is unusual given that the FCC does not have clear jurisdiction over the content of app stores,” according to Reuters.

In his letter to the tech giants, Carr referred to a Buzzfeed News report which said that ByteDance employees in China have repeatedly accessed non-public US user data.