The committee panel reviewing TikTok’s national security risks is facing escalating bipartisan pressure to separate the popular Chinese-owned video app from its parent company.
Two senators on Thursday urged The Committee on Foreign Investment to “swiftly conclude its investigation and impose strict structural restrictions between TikTok’s American operations and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, including potentially separating the companies.”
The letter from the lawmakers — Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., chair of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., a member of the Senate Committee on Intelligence — points to the possibility of China using the app to “collect data on tens of millions of American users and attempt to influence our public discourse.” It mirrors concerns from a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a Federal Communications commissioner urging Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores.
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Once a partisan issue raised almost exclusively by Republicans, Democrats have begun adopting the call for a national ban on TikTok. In December, President Joe Biden signed a bill prohibiting the use of popular video app by nearly four million government employees on devices owned by its agencies. At least 27 state governments have passed similar measures.
The US Committee on Foreign Investment, which reviews business dealing that may be a threat to national security, is scrutinizing ByteDance’s 2017 merger of TikTok and Musical.ly. In August, TikTok proposed to permit ByteDance to continue owning the app in a deal that would silo U.S. user data and restrict access by employees in China. CFIUS is empowered to force TikTok to sell to a U.S. company.
The lawmakers point to ByteDance in December acknowledging that staff has spied on the private data of journalists to identify sources behind articles critical of the company. While TikTok fired employees connected to the incident, the spying was directed by senior executives, including CEO Shou Zi Chew, according to the letter.
“This bombshell disclosure demonstrates that TikTok and ByteDance cannot be trusted by CFIUS or its tens of millions of users in the United States,” the lawmakers write. “TikTok is clearly, inextricably dependent on ByteDance for its operations, and therefore beholden to the government of China.”
The concern revolves around the Chinese government leverage data collected by TikTok, which has over 100 million active users, to advance its interests. The company, for example, be forced to tweak its algorithm to boost content that undermines U.S. democratic institutions or silences criticism of the China.
The letter calls on CFIUS to impose “structural separations” on ByteDance’s ability to access “Americans’ personal data; make decisions about content moderation; control its algorithmic recommendation systems; and oversee its U.S. operations.”
“At a minimum, CFIUS should ensure that executive decision making about the platform is based in the United States and fully free from coercive influence from Beijing,” the letter reads. “It must also ensure that decisions about, and access to, all personal data, algorithms, and content moderation relating to American users is out of the reach or influence of the Chinese government.”
There’s no evidence that the Chinese government has demanded American user data from TikTok or its parent company or influenced the content users see on the platform. TikTok didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco on Thursday also warned against using TikTok due to national security risks.
“The bottom line is China has been quite clear that they are trying to mold and put forward the use and norms around technologies that privilege their interests,” she said at a panel on technology and national security at the Chatham House in London. “There’s a reason we need to be very concerned.”
