By Rep. Randy Weber
TikTok, which is controlled by ByteDance and tied to the Chinese Communist Party, poses a significant national security threat to the United States. ByteDance, a Chinese company with an internal Chinese Communist Party committee, must comply with China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law requiring Chinese companies to “support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work” – which means they must provide any information requested to the Chinese government, including highly sensitive data collected on American users.
ByteDance has demonstrated their willingness to use TikTok to spy on Americans, and allegedly provided its internal CCP committee members with a “god credential” to view all data collected on TikTok users, including Americans. In 2022, leaked audio from internal TikTok meetings exposed that “everything is seen in China” and ByteDance has confirmed using TikTok to monitor American journalists’ physical location. Just last week, TikTok demonstrated its ability to weaponize its roughly 150 million American users against U.S. national security interests, launching a propaganda campaign to attempt to disrupt an Energy and Commerce Committee markup of legislation that would force them to sever ties with the CCP.
House Republicans passed bipartisan legislation that places the choice in TikTok’s hands: Either they can sever their ties with the CCP or no longer be available in the United States. Refusing to divest would suggest China’s real purpose behind TikTok in America is to spy on Americans and use the platform for China’s own interest. We must ensure the Chinese government cannot weaponize TikTok against American users and our government through data collection and propaganda.
