The move adds pressure on the video-sharing app's owner amid fears among some in the U.S. that the app could be used to spy on Americans or censor content.
A TikTok representative released a statement to USA TODAY Tuesday night calling the proposed legislation"politically motivated" and encouraging elected officials to let the security review of TikTok play out before enacting new laws.
"TikTok is loved by millions of Americans who use the platform to learn, grow their businesses, and connect with creative content that brings them joy," said Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesperson. "We will continue to brief members of Congress on the plans that have been developed under the oversight of our country's top national security agencies – plans that we are well underway in implementing – to further secure our platform in the United States.
While there has been much debate about whether the Chinese government is actively collecting TikTok data, the app poses a clear vulnerability, Trenchcoat Advisors co-founder Holden Triplett, a former FBI government official who worked in Beijing and counterintelligence, . Because TikTok's owner, ByteDance, is a Chinese company, it would have to comply with any potential requests from Chinese security and intelligence requests to hand over data, which could include employee’s location and contacts, he said.adding that he was “extremely concerned” Beijing could weaponize data collected through TikTok.
TikTok has been in discussions for months with the U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to reach an agreement to protect app users' data,
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