Apple and Google have been called to remove TikTok from the App Store and the Play Store by a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

TikTok, which garners millions of downloads on Google Play Store for Android users and Apple App Store for iPhones and iPads, is under fire after a recent BuzzFeed report alleges that the data of its US users are accessible in China.

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In this photo illustration, the download page for the TikTok app is displayed on an Apple iPhone on August 7, 2020 in Washington, DC. On Thursday evening, President Donald Trump signed an executive order.

This time, an FCC commissioner, Brendan Carr, is asking two renowned tech giants, Google and Apple, to remove the China-based video sharing service from their official app marketplaces.

Apple, Google Called to Remove TikTok

As per a news story by Business Insider, the FCC commissioner wrote a letter to the big bosses Google and Apple, namely the Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet Inc., Sundar Pichai, and the CEO of the Cupertino-based tech giant, Tim Cook, respectively.

The letter of Carr to the two tech executives provides references to the story of BuzzFeed, according to a recent report by Apple Insider.

The FCC commission began the letter cited the BuzzFeed report, which alleges TikTok of collecting sensitive data of its users in the US and allowing its top brass in China to access it.

The BuzzFeed story says that the report is based on a leaked audio recording and statements from nine employees of TikTok. It further alleges that the engineers in China are looking into the private users data of users in the US.

Read Also: Google Play Store Kicks Out Apps Secretly Collecting User Data! Outdated Apps To Be Removed?

TikTok a National Risk?

All that said, the FCC commissioner now asks Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores for being an "unacceptable national security risk."

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An illustration picture taken on April 21, 2022 in Moscow shows a smart phone screen bearing the Google Play store application logo.

Carr also says that it is due to its extensive data harvesting combined with Beijing's apparently unchecked access to that sensitive data."

On top of that, the commissioner also asserts that TikTok violated the rules and regulations of Google and Apple. He says that the "pattern of conduct and misrepresentations regarding the unfettered access that persons in Beijing have to sensitive US user data."

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This illustration photo shows the Apple app store logo reflected from an iPhone onto the back of an iMac in Los Angeles, August 26, 2021.

Furthermore, the FCC commissioner boldly argued that TikTok is "not just an app for sharing funny videos or memes."

It is worth noting that the video sharing platform has become popular to young folks, thanks to its entertaining content, such as trendy dance and laughable clips.

But Carr says it is more than just that, claiming that all the fun videos are merely "the sheep's clothing."

The commissioner told Google and Apple that "TikTok functions as a sophisticated surveillance tool that harvests extensive amounts of personal and sensitive data."

Related Article: Google Play Store Kicks Out Apps Secretly Collecting User Data! Outdated Apps To Be Removed?

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Written by Teejay Boris