Social media app TikTok’s Chinese parent company is getting more entrenched into American phones, with its video editing program CapCut the most popular downloaded app in the Apple App Store since Friday.
The second-most downloaded app is TikTok itself, which has come under intense scrutiny for data privacy concerns due to ByteDance’s relationship with the Chinese Communist Party and has even caused the app to be banned from some government devices.
“We have concerns on data privacy and security with TikTok, so I don’t doubt an app from the same parent company would also elicit concerns from us,” said Jane Chung, the Big Tech accountability advocate at the consumer group Public Citizen.
Chung said she needed to learn more about CapCut and its data practices before commenting further on what problems could arise from the company.
CapCut, which is a video editing app that makes it easy for users to add effects, stickers, filters, and music, reached the No. 1 spot for the first time over the weekend, according to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower. It also ranks ninth on the Google Play app store in the United States.
The app has been downloaded over 250 million times globally between the Apple and Google app stores and 9.5 million times within the U.S. specifically, Sensor Tower data showed.
Similar to TikTok, CapCut is likely to draw in a large user base by offering free, useful services and then finding ways to make money off users once they become reliant on the app.
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However, data privacy and national security concerns regarding ByteDance continue to exist due to fear of the Chinese government’s access to all data collected by technology companies in China.
ByteDance and TikTok first came into the spotlight when former President Donald Trump tried to ban the app due to security threats and pushed the parent company to be sold to an American owner instead, which it is attempting to do.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced the No TikTok on Government Devices Act last month to ban the app from government devices. If data and privacy concerns exist with CapCut as well, it’s possible that it could face pressure to be banned from certain devices.
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TikTok has already been banned from government devices in a number of agencies, including the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the Transportation Security Administration.
