FCC Commissioner Renews Calls for TikTok Ban

Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr has renewed calls for a ban on TikTok over data privacy concerns.

Carr has been vocal in his belief the US should ban TikTok as the company continues to mislead users and lawmakers about how it handles US data. In an interview with Axios, Carr reiterated his desire to see the app banned.

“I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban,” Carr said.

Carr also expressed his belief that there isn’t “a world in which you could come up with sufficient protection on the data that you could have sufficient confidence that it’s not finding its way back into the hands of the [Chinese Communist Party].”

Carr’s criticism comes after TikTok was caught sending American data to China after promising US lawmakers that data was handled by a dedicated US-based team. The company later refused to guarantee American data wouldn’t make its way to China and has since been accused of planning to surveil specific Americans.

Given the company’s long history of privacy abuses, it’s truly amazing the app hasn’t been banned already.