In a letter to Apple and Google CEOs Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai on Thursday, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) demanded that TikTok be removed "immediately" from their app stores.
Bennet's push to limit app downloads is the latest in a string of congressional actions to outlaw the embattled Chinese-owned app. Republicans and Democrats have been calling on their colleagues and Biden administration officials to impose stricter data collection restrictions or a nationwide ban on the app since January, citing potential threats to US national security.
“TikTok’s vast influence and aggressive data collection pose a specific threat to US national security because of its parent company’s obligations under Chinese law,” Bennet wrote. “Given these grave and growing concerns, I ask that you remove TikTok from your respective app stores immediately.”
Bennet, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, is the first lawmaker to contact app store providers such as Apple and Google and request that TikTok be removed. TikTok has been in talks with the federal government, specifically the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), for more than three years in order to continue operating its app in the United States. TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny from lawmakers who are concerned that the app may share US user data with the Chinese government.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew described "Project Texas," the company's plan to move all data from Virginia and Singapore to US-based Oracle servers overseen by a new subsidiary known as TikTok US Data Security Inc., in a rare public interview at last year's New York Times DealBook summit.
Despite these efforts, public pressure to ban the app has grown in response to revelations that ByteDance employees have repeatedly accessed the data of US users over the last few years.
Forbes reported in December that ByteDance employees improperly obtained data collected from US users. At least two reporters' data was viewed by ByteDance employees who were looking into previous leaks of internal company documents. ByteDance affirmed the reports and stated that all four employees involved in the scheme, two of whom worked in China, had been fired.
TikTok and CFIUS have yet to reach an agreement to keep the app operational in the United States. The Wall Street Journal reported last month that talks between the two parties had stalled, postponing any expected deal. With TikTok's future uncertain, lawmakers have begun to pursue their own solutions. Chew was scheduled to appear at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on US user safety and security earlier this week.
“Big Tech has increasingly become a destructive force in American Society,” chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said in a statement Monday. “Bytedance-owned TikTok has knowingly allowed the ability for the Chinese Communist Party to access American user data.”
TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter welcomed "the opportunity to set the record straight" in response to Monday's hearing announcement. During the March 23rd hearing, Oberwetter stated that TikTok intends to discuss its "comprehensive plans" to protect US user safety.
Unlike Google, Apple has a lot to lose in terms of its relationships with both the United States and China. Cook's ability to maintain working relationships with the Chinese government and manufacturers has contributed significantly to Apple's success.
