Recent York City’s public Wi-Fi network has nixed a controversial cope with Chinese-owned TikTok to bring the service to “every street corner” after a Post inquiry and as congressional scrutiny over the app rages.
The planned partnership between the tech firm Intersection and LinkNYC was designed to permit TikTok’s “Out of Phone” service — which expands its wildly popular cell video content to public displays in every single place from billboards to bars — to screens on city cell-phone poles and at its Wi-Fi kiosks.
But Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Ritichie Torres (D-Bronx) got wind of the plan and immediately demanded that Mayor Eric Adams scrap the deal, claiming it represented a national security threat, given the corporate’s ties to China.
Recent York City’s public Wi-Fi network has nixed a controversial cope with Chinese-owned TikTok. AFP via Getty Images
Mayor Eric Adams’ cyber command unit banned TikTok from all government devices and ordered all city employees to delete the app from their work phones inside 30 days out of fear of Chinese espionage. Tomas E. Gaston
Intersection then told The Post on Sunday that the TikTok deal has been iced after the outlet asked about it.
“While this relationship never involved the gathering or sharing of any data, Intersection has already paused the TikTok content partnership and is within the technique of ending it resulting from recent developments on the federal level,” an Intersection rep said.
That’s a stark departure from what Intersection said when it announced the TikTok partnership in February, with a company representative crowing in a press release, “Our collaboration with TikTok takes their initiative to each street corner of NYC.”
The free public LinkNYC Wi-Fi program is currently provided under a city franchise agreement with a consortium called CityBridge that features Intersection and Boldyn Networks.
After Intersection and TikTok inked their deal, Gottheimer and Torres learned of it — and cried foul to the town.
“We write to induce you to finish the partnership between TikTok, LinkNYC, and Intersection,” the pols told the mayor in a draft letter obtained by The Post.
“This partnership presents a grave threat to national security by allowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to reap Americans’ data from the biggest city in america,” they said.
The planned partnership between the tech firm Intersection and LinkNYC was designed to permit TikTok’s “Out of Phone” service to screens on city cell-phone poles and at its Wi-Fi kiosks. Helayne Seidman
Gottheimer and Torres identified the House voted 352-65 last month to provide TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban. The Senate is considering similar laws, although the move faces opposition from TikTok and plenty of of its users.
Recent York City is the financial capital of the world and residential to “troves of sensitive data and data” and 9 million residents, while China’s CCP is “willing to make use of cyberwarfare and surveillance tactics to breach U.S. institutions,” the House members told the mayor.
“This privacy disaster cannot proceed: TikTok and the CCP cannot have any additional avenues to access Americans’ data,” Gottheimer and Torres said. “Although Congress has taken steps to mitigate these national security threats, Recent York City’s partnership stays a threat to national security and needs to be terminated immediately.”
Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Ritichie Torres (D-Bronx) got wind of the plan and immediately demanded that Mayor Eric Adams scrap the deal. Robert Miller
Congressman Ritchie Torres identified the House voted 352-65 last month to provide TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, about six months to divest the US assets of the short-video app or face a ban. Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
The Federal Trade Commission in 2019 fined TikTok for knowingly collecting the names, email addresses, pictures and locations of kids under the age of 13 without parental consent, the lawmakers said.
The social-media app in 2022 also agreed to a class-action settlement for harvesting US personal data from users without their consent and confirmed that China-based employees could gain distant access to Americans’ data, including public videos and comments, the Congress members told the mayor.
“Using TikTok, China has the power to manage what a generation of youngsters sees and consumes each day,” the House reps said.
“We urge Recent York City to instantly reevaluate this contract with LinkNYC if it continues its
partnership with TikTok.”
Town Office of Technology and Innovation, responding to The Post for the Adams administration, washed its hands of the controversy Sunday, claiming it was in a roundabout way involved within the deal.
“The City of Recent York recognizes the general public health hazard and cybersecurity threat posed by TikTok and has undertaken significant legal and policy actions against each,” an OTI spokesman said.
In August, Adams’ cyber command unit banned TikTok from all government devices and ordered all city employees to delete the app from their work phones inside 30 days out of fear of Chinese espionage.
“This administration doesn’t have an promoting partnership with TikTok,” the OTI rep said. “As franchisee of the LinkNYC program, CityBridge is restricted from collecting personally identifiable information and from sharing that data with third parties. Promoting content appearing on any LinkNYC kiosk shouldn’t be necessarily an endorsement by the City of Recent York.”