WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Senators were ticked off at TikTok.
“TikTok is a gun aimed at American’s heads,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said.
“We have known for a long time that TikTok is a problem,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said.
This comes after a classified briefing by U.S intelligence and law enforcement officials on the dangers of the app.
“There was deep concern about the threat from TikTok on both sides of the aisle,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas.) said.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says TikTok poses a risk to its users and U.S security, as long as it is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.
“Every technology company in China, under Chinese law, has to do whatever the Chinese government tells them to do,” Rubio said.
Rubio and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) lead the Senate Intelligence Committee, and they are urging the Senate to take up the House bill that would ban TikTok from U.S app stores if ByteDance doesn’t sell TikTok within 6 months.
“It’s about the ability to make sure that this creativity that is happening on this platform, can’t be manipulated by the communist party of China,” Warner said.
The Chinese government says it will not permit the sale of TikTok because it requires exporting Chinese technology.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) says Americans are better off without the app.
“We want them to have multiple other choices. We need to trust American innovation and American platforms. That’s my view,” Hawley said.
Despite the growing concern, there’s been no indication as to when the Senate might vote on the bill.
