Popular podcast host Joe Rogan slammed the social media app TikTok, saying that China has access to American users’ data and “knows every f***ing thing you type.”
A recent report indicates the parent company of TikTok had access to American users’ data well before employees in the United States did.
Everyone with kids or grandkids likely knows about TikTok – which has taken the crown for top social media app among young people.
Leaked audio from 80 internal meetings obtained by Buzzfeed News last month shows multiple statements from multiple TikTok employees alleging “engineers in China had access to US data between September 2021 and January 2022, at the very least.”
The data includes sensitive, nonpublic data such as birthdays and phone numbers.
“US employees had to turn to their colleagues in China to determine how US user data was flowing,” Buzzfeed writes. “US staff did not have permission or knowledge of how to access the data on their own, according to the tapes.”
“Everything is seen in China,” one person described only as a member of TikTok’s Trust and Safety department said.
China accessed data of US TikTok users repeatedly, report sayshttps://t.co/SOGdnLtjgZ
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 19, 2022
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RELATED: President Trump Signs New Executive Order That Essentially Bans TikTok In 45 Days – China Fires Back
Joe Rogan Slams TikTok – China Has All Your Data
On the latest episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, the podcaster hopefully broke through to users of the China-based app TikTok and the dangers it presents to Americans.
“I read TikTok’s terms of service, I went down a TikTok rabbit hole yesterday … This is so crazy,” he told his guest, comedian Theo Von.
“Is it good or bad?” asked Von.
“Bad!” Rogan replied.
He proceeded to read off parts of the TikTok terms before explaining to listeners that it essentially means China can access user data whenever it chooses to.
Joe Rogan reads Tik Tok’s privacy policy. pic.twitter.com/GZ5FxAl8XO
— Must not sleep. (@Dsignasaur) July 27, 2022
“So all your apps and all your file names, all the things you have filed away on your phone, they have access to that,” Rogan said. “‘File names and types, keystroke patterns or rhythms.’”
“So they’re monitoring your keystrokes, which means they know every f***ing thing you type,” he added.
Von then asked what it means and how it all ends to which Rogan responded, “It ends with China having all of your data.”
Watch:
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RELATED: Pompeo Says Trump Admin Looking At Potential Restriction of TikTok For Being Chinese-Owned
Trump Tried to Ban TikTok
Buzzfeed News followed up last month’s report with another pointing out the TikTok parent company has been using a news app on millions of phones to push pro-China propaganda.
Four former employees of the company used a now-defunct app, according to the report, and “instructed members of its staff to place specific pieces of pro-China messaging in the app.”
The company denies the claims.
NEW: On the heels of renewed concerns that the CCP could use TikTok for foreign influence campaigns, former employees of its parent company, ByteDance, say that ByteDance already used one of its now-defunct news apps to feed CCP propaganda to Americans.https://t.co/jRW4oQ121n https://t.co/vVSiRHrig5
— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) July 26, 2022
Former President Donald Trump attempted to ban TikTok over fears that China’s access to American users’ data posed a national security threat.
“TikTok automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users, including Internet and other network activity information such as location data and browsing and search histories,” an executive order from August of 2020 reads.
“This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage,” it reads.
Liberals responded predictably by calling the former President a racist.
Bans on WeChat and TikTok violate the First Amendment by restricting our ability to communicate and conduct important transactions.
Restricting WeChat in particular will harm many communities with loved ones in China.
The move reflects Trump’s xenophobic and racist agenda.
— ACLU (@ACLU) September 18, 2020
President Biden signed an executive order revoking the Trump administration ban on TikTok, while ordering the Secretary of Commerce to investigate the Chinese-affiliated app to determine any potential national security threat.
President Biden has rescinded Trump’s bans on TikTok and WeChat — replacing them with new orders calling for the Commerce Department to launch national security reviews of apps with links to foreign adversaries.https://t.co/AH2GGKq6os
— NPR (@NPR) June 9, 2021
Politico reported that President Biden was considering ways to communicate with young users on TikTok to garner support despite not being able to have an official account on the app because his administration determined it shouldn’t be used “for security reasons.”
The Democratic National Committee launched a TikTok account in March of this year.
TikTok has over 1 billion active monthly users.
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