Joe Biden’s bizarre move to join TikTok just months after banning his staff from the social media app could allow China to spy on his presidential campaign.
A cybersecurity expert told DailyMail.com that state-sponsored cyber attackers could potentially steal data from the president’s campaign through backdoor channels set up by the parent company.
Biden’s campaign has not provided details on how it plans to prevent TikTok’s parent company from disclosing voter information to the Chinese government.
As of June 2023, Biden banned nearly 4 million federal government employees from installing the app on government devices.
Citing data security concerns, politicians on both sides of the political spectrum have fully supported banning the app.
Joe Biden’s campaign joined TikTok less than a year after his administration banned federal employees from downloading the app on government devices over concerns that the Chinese government could gain access to sensitive data through backdoors
“If the device used to create content is connected to the campaign’s network, state-sponsored attackers can use the app to spy on other network traffic, including private emails, online meetings, and other sensitive communications.” , John Wilson, senior threat research fellow at cybersecurity firm Fortra, told DailyMail.com.
“The app could record audio, video, GPS locations and a whole host of other valuable information,” Wilson added.
In Joe Biden’s first TikTok, he answered a series of this-or-that questions, including “Trump or Biden?” He replied, “Are you kidding me?”
TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, and Chinese law requires companies in the country to share user data with the government.
US politicians have expressed fears that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to release large amounts of data it has collected from US users.
This was one of the main reasons why the Biden administration banned the app from federal agencies, with some exceptions for law enforcement and national security purposes. It’s also the point where his political opponents are heckling him after Sunday’s announcement.
In 2020 and 2022, the app was used to spread disinformation, a major problem in a presidential election year.
The FBI and Federal Communications Commission have warned that a host of app users’ data is vulnerable: biometric information, location data and browsing history.
In 2022, the company admitted to spying on reporters through location data.
The app may also use invasive tracking measures, including collecting users’ phone contacts; This feature seems to remain active in part even if the app cannot access your contacts, as it continues to recommend users whose phone numbers are in your phone.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced a barrage of questions about tech companies’ failure to protect young social media users during a January hearing of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Big Tech and the online sexual assault crisis exploitation of children
And if the President of the United States of America were to hand over his cell phone data to a foreign government, it would raise national security concerns.
Crucially, Joe Biden himself is not on TikTok, and the Secret Service has extremely strict rules about how the US president can use a mobile phone.
The account is previously owned by the official rapid response arm for the Biden-Harris campaign.
Last year, sources within the campaign had said that the campaign would not join TikTok due to security concerns.
((That’s obviously changed.)) duh! bit clear. Can we add insight instead? like…how many millions of americans under the age of 25 use tiktok? how many people use tiktok as their main news source etc. shows the impetus to use the app
“We are taking advanced security measures around our devices and integrating an advanced security protocol to ensure security,” Biden campaign advisers said in a statement.
But the campaign has not elaborated on this strategy or clarified which devices will be logged into the account. Nor did the campaign clarify whether it is campaign data or voter data they will want to protect.
In addition to the federal ban, TikTok has been under investigation for years by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).
“The campaign’s presence is independent and separate from the ongoing CFIUS review,” campaign representatives said.
Experts have predicted that this election season will see unprecedented levels of sophisticated digital fraud that will undermine the campaign, including deepfake videos and AI-driven personalized disinformation.
Amid these concerns, the Biden campaign’s move is drawing fire from all sides.
ByteDance has already run into trouble for improper data use, including a $368 million fine from the European Union in September for failing to protect children using the app. NO ESPIONAGE LAWSUITS?
And nearly 60 percent of Americans see TikTok as a major or minor threat to U.S. national security, according to a Pew Research Center. poll.
Officials in the federal government have made it clear that even though Biden’s campaign is on the app, that doesn’t mean it is considered secure.
“There has been no change in national security concerns, from the NSC’s perspective, about the use of TikTok on government devices,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a news conference. “That policy is still in place.”
Kirby would not clarify whether the White House and the campaign had communicated about the decision to launch the social media account, and he referred questions to the campaign.
“I don’t want to get too much into the national security, the technical reasons behind that, but it does have to do with concerns about data retention and the potential misuse of that data and privacy information by foreign actors,” he says. said.
All that said, cybersecurity experts have long been skeptical about whether TikTok’s cybersecurity problems are worse than those of U.S.-based companies like Meta, which also uses invasive tracking methods and has been used to spread election misinformation.
There are some simple steps that can be taken to ensure that the Biden campaign’s TikTok account does not expose sensitive data, Wilson said.
“I would highly recommend that the campaign use a dedicated content creation device,” he said. ‘That device should be turned off when not in use, and should never be used for any other purpose. ‘