14 DAY TRIAL // After being banned by the United States on government-issued devices and flagged as a cybersecurity threat, TikTok now faces new problems in South Korea, where local authorities are also investigating the app due to security concerns.
The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) announced today that it launched a probe on TikTok after Rep. Song Hee-kyeoung of Liberty Korea Party warned of potential personal information mishandling by the Chinese company back in October.
Rep. Song warned that certain user information, including location data, collected by TikTok might be shared with the Chinese government.
According to a report from KoreaTimes, TikTok has 4 million users in Korea and so far no sanctions have been issued against the app or parent company ByteDance.
“The KCC has launched an investigation into TikTok for allegations of a personal data leak. After conferring with TikTok, we will soon also conduct an on-site investigation. The KCC decided to launch the investigation after Rep. Song Hee-kyeoung of Liberty Korea Party pointed out the potential cybersecurity matters of TikTok,” a KCC official was quoted as saying.
TikTok not for sale despite problems
The legal issues that the app must deal with across the world doesn’t mean TikTok is for sale, ByteDance said in a recent announcement.
Sources familiar with the matter said earlier this month that ByteDance was considering a potential sale of TikTok due to the security concerns that more governments expressed lately.
“From time to time you may read stories in the media that are not true. Today there is an inaccurate report claiming that ByteDance has considered selling part or all of TikTok,” the company said in the internal memo. “We went on the record saying it was not true, but they decided to publish it anyway. I want to assure you that we have had no discussions with potential buyers of TikTok, nor do we have any intention to.”
ByteDance is yet to release a statement on the investigation started by South Korea.