Pressure mounts on TikTok amid probe into national security, privacy threats

Bipartisan pressure is mounting on the video-sharing app TikTok amid an ongoing probe into potential threats it poses to U.S. national security.

TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company based in Beijing, which has sparked concerns that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could compel the app to turn over American users' data or expose them to propaganda.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said in an interview on "Fox News Sunday" that "TikTok is an enormous threat." He explained that parents should be "very concerned" because "all of that data that your child is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing."

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Warner added that TikTok videos make the platform a "broadcasting network in a sense," and because its Beijing-based parent company is required by domestic law to cooperate with the Chinese government, the company could be leveraged to advance the CCP's propaganda.

The senator explained that Tiktok could "decrease the content that criticizes Chinese leadership, but increase the content that your kids may be seeing saying, ‘Hey, Taiwan is part of China.' That is a distribution model that would make RT or Sputnik or some of the Russian propaganda models pale in comparison."  

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., expressed similar concerns about TikTok in an appearance on Fox News Sunday, saying the app "is one of the most massive surveillance programs ever, especially on America's young people." 

Cotton also rejected TikTok's claims that data from its American users is only stored in the U.S. and Singapore, citing reports that such data is accessible by engineers in China. He urged Americans to "delete TikTok from their phone, and if they can, get a new phone altogether." 

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TikTok and ByteDance are currently under investigation by the Treasury Department's Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), which evaluates national security risks associated with foreign-owned companies operating in the U.S. or foreign investments in American companies.

In a statement to FOX Business, a spokesperson for the National Security Council declined to comment specifically on TikTok given the ongoing investigation but offered a general explanation of the administration's approach to security threats posed by digital platforms. 

The NSC spokesperson said, "Generally speaking, the Biden administration is focused on the challenge of certain countries, including China, seeking to leverage digital technologies and Americans' data in ways that present unacceptable national security risks."

Regarding the CFIUS investigation, a TikTok spokesperson told FOX Business, "While we can't comment on the specifics of our confidential discussions with the U.S. Government, we are confident that we are on a path to fully satisfy all reasonable U.S. national security concerns."

Last week, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before the House Homeland Security Committee that he is "extremely concerned" about the threats posed by TikTok. 

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Wray explained that those concerns "include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose, or to control software on millions of devices, which gives the opportunity to potentially technically compromise personal devices."

Wray went on to note that the FBI's foreign investment unit and the Dept. of Justice are involved in the CFIUS process and the agency's input "would be taken into account in any agreements that might be made to address the issue."

FOX Business' Edward Lawrence contributed to this report