US senators fear TikTok a ‘potential risk’ to national security, urge intelligence to look into it

• US intelligence urged to investigate TikTok, other China-based content platforms operating in US.
• They fear the app could be actively exporting information on US users to the Chinese government.

United States lawmakers have written a letter to US intelligence official expressing their concern regarding the Chinese-owned app TikTok and whether it poses a risk to the national security.

The letter has been written by United States Senators Charles E. Schumer and Tom Cotton to Joseph Maguire Acting Director of National Intelligence. The US senators wrote that TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based technology company ByteDance, has over 110 million downloads in US and is  ‘a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore’.

The senators continued that ByteDance is an artificial intelligence company powered by algorithms that learn each user's interests and preferences through repeat interaction. “While the company has stated that TikTok does not operate in China and stores US user data in the US, ByteDance is still required to adhere to the laws of China,” the letter stated.

Schumer and Cotton added that security experts have voiced concerns that China’s vague patchwork of intelligence, national security, and cybersecurity laws 'compel Chinese companies to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party'. They feared that the app could be actively exporting information on users in the US to the Chinese government. 

The senators added that questions have also been raised regarding the potential for censorship or manipulation of certain content. They wrote that TikTok censors content related to the recent Hong Kong protests, references to Tiananmen Square, Tibetan and Taiwanese independence and the treatment of Uighurs.

"The platform is also a potential target of foreign influence campaigns like those carried out during the 2016 election on U.S.-based social media platforms," letter added.

The senators have urged the Intelligence Community to conduct an assessment of the national security risks posed by TikTok and other China-based content platforms operating in the US and brief Congress on these findings.