TikTok should be removed from app stores, senator warns

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TikTok should be removed from app stores, senator warns

WASHINGTON TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, should be removed from app stores run by Apple Inc and Alphabet's Google because the short video-social media app poses a risk to national security, Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat on the intelligence committee, said in a letter dated Thursday.

The app, which Congress has banned from federal government devices, has been criticised by the fact that China's government could use it to harvest data on Americans or advance Chinese interests.

Bennet wrote in a letter to Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook, saying that no company subject to the CCP Chinese Communist Party dictates the power to accumulate such extensive data on the American people or curate content to nearly a third of our population.

He wrote that he urges you to remove TikTok immediately from your app stores because of these risks.

Prior to Bennet's letter, Republicans have largely led the charge on TikTok and national security concerns, although Democratic Senator Dick Durbin previously urged Americans to stop using the app.

The Foreign Affairs Committee plans to hold a vote on a bill that will block TikTok's use in the United States next month, which is now in Republican hands, according to the committee.

In 2020, President Donald Trump tried to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions that would have prevented TikTok's use in the United States, but the move was rebuffed by the courts.

The company says that China's government can't access personal data of U.S. citizens or manipulate the app's content.

TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is due to appear before the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee in March.