Many American elected officials consider the platform of short and viral videos, which belongs to the Chinese group ByteDance, as a threat to national security. They fear, along with a growing number of Western governments, that Beijing may not be able to access user data around the world through this app. TikTok has been denying it for years, but tensions between the two countries and, recently, the downing of a supposed Chinese spy balloon, have raised calls to stand firm against China.
A competing bill, introduced in the House of Representatives, also passed a key milestone in Congress last week. Prohibiting the application would be tantamount to “muzzling freedom of expression” millions of Americans, protests TikTok, which claims more than a hundred million users in the United States. The app’s chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, will be heard by the US Congress later this month.