House Republicans Seek Update on TikTok Security Review
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI must update Congress on their security review of TikTok, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., and House Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, wrote in a letter to the agencies that was released Friday. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which collaborates with DHS and the FBI, began a national security review of the Chinese-owned social media company in 2019. It’s unclear what the agencies have done to address their national security concerns about TikTok, particularly the Chinese government’s access to user data, they wrote. Given TikTok’s more than 150 million U.S. users, the FBI and other agencies have “raised alarms about the potential that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could use TikTok to threaten U.S. homeland security, censor dissidents, and spread its malign influence on U.S. soil,” their offices said. TikTok and the agencies didn’t comment.