Walden, Rodgers Press Apple, Google on App Vetting
House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., pressed Apple and Google Wednesday for information by Aug. 12 about how they ensure apps sold through their mobile platforms “are appropriately…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
vetted, particularly those with close ties to China and the Chinese Communist Party.” Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pinchai were among those testifying Wednesday to the Antitrust Subcommittee (see 2007290063). “The growth of smart device use and reliance on teleconferencing has only increased our dependence on apps, and with that an additional layer of protection that virtual private networks (VPNs) can provide,” Walden and Rodgers wrote Cook and Pinchai. “Bad actors may be taking advantage of the American people’s trust” in Apple and Google amid the pandemic, “which likely extends to apps available through” the companies’ stores. The legislators asked whether the companies “apply additional scrutiny” to TikTok due to parent ByteDance’s “close ties” with the Chinese government. Apple and Google didn’t comment. TikTok said it's enhancing transparency (see 2007290046).