Senate Republicans call for TikTok ban: 'Major threat to U.S. national security'
TikTok is owned by ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, China
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr explains why TikTok is a 'serious national security threat' on 'Varney & Co.'
Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., said Thursday that they will introduce legislation to effectively ban TikTok in the United States, citing concerns that the social media app's popularity in the United States could give the Chinese Communist Party the ability to "subtly indoctrinate American citizens" and collect info on users.
"TikTok is a major threat to U.S. national security," the senators wrote in the Washington Post. "Unless TikTok and its algorithm can be separated from Beijing, the app’s use in the United States will continue to jeopardize our country’s safety and pave the way for a Chinese-influenced tech landscape here."
TikTok has surged in popularity in recent years. A Pew Research Center study released last month found that 10% of Americans use the short-form video app as a source of news, up from just 3% in 2020.
TikTok app logo on the App Store is seen with TikTok logo displayed in the background in this illustration photo. (Photo Ilustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Critics of the app cite China's 2017 national security law, which states that "any organization or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work in accordance with the law, and maintain the secrecy of all knowledge of state intelligence work."
"With this app, Beijing could also collect sensitive national security information from U.S. government employees and develop profiles on millions of Americans to use for blackmail or espionage," Sens. Rubio and Gallagher wrote.
Republican lawmakers have pilloried the Biden administration for courting TikTok influencers. with Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., calling it "incredibly irresponsible" to ask "teenagers to do his job for him" on a Chinese-owned social media app.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping leads other Chinese leaders attending the fifth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing, China. (Wang Ye/Xinhua via AP / AP Newsroom)
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FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr has also called for a TikTok ban, arguing that the Treasury Department and its subsidiary Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States should take action against the app.
"I think all of this is part of a broad set of issues, which is that Beijing is looking to use all sorts of tech and telecom means, whether it's cyber attacks, whether it's harvesting data through TikTok, to pursue their malign goals," Carr said in an interview on "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" last week.
TikTok did not respond to a request for comment about Sens. Rubio and Gallagher's op-ed on Thursday.