Originally published on Best Stocks Source: Getty ImagesBrendan Carr, the commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, claims in a letter to Apple and Google that the well-known short-video service TikTok poses a “serious” threat to American national security.ByteDance, a company located in China, owns TikTok. Carr claims that TikTok gathers “huge troves of sensitive data” on U.S. users of the app, and then shares it with China’s government. The leaked audio from over 80 internal TikTok meetings suggested that China-based ByteDance workers “had frequently accessed nonpublic data identifying U.S. TikTok users,” according to a recent BuzzFeed piece.In a statement, TikTok said it would “gladly engage” with legislators on BuzzFeed’s “misleading” story on the social media platform.Engineers from all around the globe work on TikTok’s platform.” User data is protected by access restrictions including encryption and security monitoring, which are monitored by a security team headquartered in the United States. It has been TikTok’s policy to allow access to U.S. user data to our engineers located outside the country, including in China, only when necessary.Requests for a response from Apple and Google went unanswered.According to Trump’s 2020 executive order, the corporation was accused of violating federal anti-discrimination laws. Chinese Communist Party officials have access to Americans’ personal and sensitive information, according to the instruction, “allowing China to possibly track the activities of Federal staff and contractors, build personal data dossiers for blackmail, and engage in commercial espionage.” Fortunately, President Joe Biden was able to have the order overturned.Despite Apple and Google claiming their app stores are “secure and reputable locations,” Carr argues TikTok is not.According to the letter, TikTok creates an “unacceptable national security risk” because of its “massive data collecting” paired with Beijing’s “seemingly uncontrolled access to that sensitive material,” Carr said. To comply with your app store standards, I am asking that TikTok be removed from your app shops for not adhering to those requirements.This app isn’t only a place to post humorous videos or memes, according to Carr. He wrote, “That’s the wolf in sheep’s clothes.” Essentially, TikTok is a clever surveillance tool that captures a vast quantity of personal and sensitive information.President Trump nominated Carr for the position of senior Republican commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. He requested a response from both businesses by the 8th of July.