US Justice Department Now Probing TikTok Over Journalist Spying Case

The Biden administration has increased its pressure on TikTok due to national security concerns arising from its connections to China. Recently, the Justice Department and the FBI have also been investigating TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, according to Forbes.

Alleged Breach of User Privacy

According to The New York Times, the Justice Department's Criminal Division's Fraud Section is coordinating with the FBI and the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to investigate the alleged breach of user privacy.

ByteDance found that some employees accessed data on American journalists' TikTok accounts in order to determine who was leaking information to reporters. The employees involved were fired after the incident, two of whom worked for the company's operations in China.

The information was released a week before the CEO of TikTok was scheduled to testify before Congress.

The administration has threatened to ban the app in the US if TikTok's Chinese owners do not sell the company.

However, TikTok has rejected the White House's proposal for divestiture, claiming that doing so will not resolve the issues raised by the government.

TikTok has made its own proposal in place of a divestment, which the business believes is more logical. But convincing the US government that a Chinese company doing business should be allowed to self-regulate might have some difficulties.

TikTok has started a $1.5 billion program called "Project Texas," which promises to keep US user data domestically and subject the company to an auditing procedure carried out by American tech giant Oracle, in response to worries about the app's ties with China.

US Mistrust

The US mistrust surrounding TikTok is not new. Since 2020, the company has been embroiled in a political conflict with the US government. The Trump administration attempted to ban the app on the grounds that it posed a national security threat.

The move was met with opposition, and TikTok was able to secure a deal with Oracle and Walmart, which would allow the companies to control a stake in the app. The Biden administration has since resumed the investigation into the app's security, indicating that the controversy surrounding the app is far from over.

China has also recently called for other governments to treat its companies such as TikTok fairly following the moves of the US, Britain, and New Zealand in restricting the use of TikTok on government devices.

In response to the bans, Wang Wenbin, a representative for the foreign ministry, asked concerned nations to accept "objective facts" and support the principles of a "non-discriminatory environment" for all companies.