Ark. AG Wants TikTok to Come Clean on Risk of US Data Falling Into Beijing’s Hands

TikTok and ByteDance removed to U.S. District Court for Western Arkansas in El Dorado Tuesday a complaint filed March 28 in Union County Circuit Court in which Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) alleges Tik Tok and its parent company are duping Arkansas consumers about the risks that the Chinese government may gain access to their personal data.

The complaint alleges TikTok’s U.S. privacy policy is misleading because it doesn’t alert the public to TikTok’s ability to share personal data with individuals or entities in China, said the notice of removal that accompanies the complaint (docket 1:23-cv-01038). The complaint, which asserts seven claims under the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, seeks a permanent injunction to compel TikTok to cease its allegedly false and deceptive statements and omissions about the risk of access to and exploitation of consumers’ content and data by Beijing and the Chinese Communist Party, it said.

The complaint “necessarily raises federal issues” because the Arkansas AG’s claims “are inextricably tied to core federal interests in foreign affairs and national security,” said the notice of removal. The complaint “squarely raises the purported national security risks posed by foreign access to TikTok U.S. user data,” it said. The federal government sought to address those issues “through an ongoing review and investigation” by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), it said.

TikTok and ByteDance continue to be engaged in negotiations and litigation with the federal government “to address any perceived national security concerns” about their data security practices, “including concerns over the risk of foreign access to U.S. user data,” said the notice of removal. The Arkansas complaint “necessarily implicates the same federal issues,” it said.

State court “is plainly the wrong forum to resolve these issues, which would require the court to consider whether TikTok user data is in fact at risk,” said the notice of removal. The Arkansas AG’s request for an injunction particularly “implicates significant federal interests, and enforcing such an injunction could interfere” with the ability of TikTok and ByteDance to negotiate a “mitigation solution” with the federal government “through the CFIUS process,” it said.

The more TikTok videos consumers view, and the more content they share, “the more highly sensitive data TikTok learns about them,” said the complaint itself. “While TikTok vacuums up reams of this highly sensitive and personal information about Arkansas consumers, it deceives and misleads them about the risks the app routinely poses to their data,” it said.

The Chinese government “can use TikTok user data to spy on, blackmail, and coerce TikTok users,” said the complaint. It can also use the data to serve propaganda to the Arkansas public, further develop China's AI capabilities “or for any number of other purposes that serve China's national security and economic interests, at the expense of Arkansas consumers,” it said.

TikTok tells Arkansas consumers their data “is protected by comprehensive company protocols and practices, including rigid access controls managed by a U.S.-based security team,” said the complaint. TikTok says it has never given the Chinese government access to that data, and it never would, it said. TikTok's public statements and omissions “paint a picture for Arkansas consumers that there is minimal risk” of the Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party “accessing and exploiting their data,” it said: “These statements are false, deceptive, and misleading.”