TikTok Lays Off Staff While FCC Deems It 'Unacceptable Security Risk'

The troubles for TikTok continue to mount, as in just the past two weeks, the video app and social media platform laid off a significant portion of its staff worldwide while the Federal Communications Commission deemed it an "unacceptable security risk."

Starting with the layoffs, the company is undergoing a "restructuring," according to a report from Wired. Employees in both European and U.S. offices were told to expect calls into HR in the coming weeks.

It is believed that the layoffs are a result of TikTok fearing an economic downturn, with some insiders saying it is in step with a larger trend within big tech of companies contracting their workforce.

⏱️ I first approached TikTok PR to ask them for comment on their mooted restructuring and resulting redundancies exactly 24 hours ago. Still no response. ICYMI, my scoop for @WIRED: https://t.co/Beteb5MkSV

— Chris Stokel-Walker (@stokel) July 19, 2022

One TikTok employee downplayed the layoffs, saying they expected less than 100 employees would lose their jobs, roughly one percent of the company's 10,000-person workforce. According to the report, TikTok employees and experts don't expect the layoffs will halt the app's meteoric rise in popular culture.

What could put a damper on TikTok's takeover of the short-form video space is a recent statement from the FCC calling the app an "unacceptable security risk."

In June, Brendan Carr, the commissioner of the FCC, sent a letter to Apple head Tim Cook and Google exec Sundar Pichai urging them to ban TikTok from their app stores. Carr wrote:

It is also clear that TikTok’s pattern of conduct and misrepresentations regarding the unfettered access that persons in Beijing have sensitive US user data … puts it out of compliance with the policies that both of your companies require every app to adhere to as a condition of remaining available on your app stores.
Therefore, I am requesting that you apply the plain text of your app store policies to TikTok and remove it from your app stores for failure to abide by those terms.

I testified about TikTok’s misrepresentations about sensitive U.S. user data being accessed from inside China in the House Oversight Committee’s National Security Subcommittee last week.

Testimony includes steps the U.S. government should take now to address this nat sec threat. pic.twitter.com/gevyOZT1xM

— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) July 18, 2022

TikTok famously squabbled with the Trump administration over similar questions of the data that the app collected. TikTok has been vague about how it uses user data, and some have wondered if it could be exploited by its parent company, ByteDance, a Chinese company. Carr mentioned in his letter that ByteDance "is beholden to the Communist Party of China and required by Chinese law to comply with the PRC‘s surveillance demands."

TikTok countered Carr's letter, as Michael Beckerman, the VP Head of Public Policy for TikTok's American division, said many of Carr's claims were false in an appearance on CNN.

“He’s mentioning we’re collecting browser history, like we’re tracking you across the internet," Beckerman said. "That’s simply false. It is something that a number of social media apps do without checking your browser history across other apps. That is not what TikTok does."

Regarding data usage, Beckerman repeated TikTok's insistence that it has not shared private information with government parties.

"We have never shared information with the Chinese government nor would we … We have US-based security teams that manage access, manage the app, and, as actual national security agencies like the CIA during the Trump administration pointed out, the data that’s available on TikTok – because it’s an entertainment app – is not of a national security importance."

It's unclear if the FCC's recommendation will lead to renewed calls to ban the app in America. Nevertheless, many aspects of the app, including the job security of its employees and the status of the app itself, remain in flux.