U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) have requested the intelligence community conduct an assessment of the potential national security risks from China-owned content platforms operating in the United States.
The formal request was sent to Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire. It is in response to growing cybersecurity and national security concerns posed by TikTok, a short-form video application.
The app is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance and has been downloaded in the United States more than 110 million times. The company says it stores American user data in the United States, but it is still required to follow Chinese law.
This concern was echoed in the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Worldwide Threat Assessment report for 2019.
“Security experts have voiced concerns that China’s vague patchwork of intelligence, national security, and cybersecurity laws compel Chinese companies to support and cooperate with intelligence work controlled by the Chinese Communist Party,” the letter said. “Without an independent judiciary to review requests made by the Chinese government for data or other actions, there is no legal mechanism for Chinese companies to appeal if they disagree with a request.”
The platform is a potential target of foreign influence campaigns.
The senators also requested a Congressional briefing on the findings.