Finally, lawmakers are taking action against TikTok, the social media platform run by the communist Chinese.
No, it’s not because of all the scantily dressed underage girls dancing about or public school teachers flaunting their transgenderism. Federal lawmakers are finally convinced that the video-sharing app is up to no good.
Last week, in the massive $1.7 trillion omnibus bill, lawmakers included a call to ban TikTok from government devices like phones and computers. The move, signed into law by President Joe Biden, came after reports that TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, improperly used the
app to spy on reporters covering the company.
“Forbes first reported the existence of the surveillance scheme, which targeted three Forbes reporters, in October,” the magazine reported last week. “At the time, TikTok did not deny the report, but tweeted that the app had ‘never been used to “target” any members of the U.S. government, activists, public figures or journalists.’ TikTok and ByteDance now admit that this was false.”
In an internal report released to the public, ByteDance confirmed that four of its employees collected data of at least two TikTok accounts belonging to U.S. journalists.
“The individuals involved misused their authority to obtain access to TikTok user data,” TikTok CEO Shou Chew said in his email to employees, according to an excerpt of the email reviewed by CNN. “This is unacceptable.”
“The misconduct of these individuals, who are no longer employed at ByteDance, was an egregious misuse of their authority to obtain access to user data,” TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter confirmed to CNN. “This misbehavior is unacceptable, and not in line with our efforts across TikTok to earn the trust of our users.”
When the app was going viral in 2019, TikTok went so far as to claim all data would be secure, vowing that U.S. user data would be kept in the United States and not sent to ByteDance headquarters in China. The revelation that the company was scouring the date of American journalists proves that’s false.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has led the campaign to ban TikTok from government devices.
“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok. This isn’t about creative videos — this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day,” Rubio said in a press release before lawmakers moved against TikTok.
“We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company,” he said.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) chimed in. “TikTok is digital fentanyl that’s addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news. It’s also an increasingly powerful media company that’s owned by ByteDance, which ultimately reports to the Chinese Communist Party – America’s foremost adversary.”
Gallagher said that allowing the app to continue to operate in the U.S. “would be like allowing the U.S.S.R. to buy up the New York Times, Washington Post, and major broadcast networks during the Cold War. No country with even a passing interest in its own security would allow this to happen, which is why it’s time to ban TikTok and any other CCP-controlled app before it’s too late.”
So finally, the federal government has taken action. But it’s high time that Americans do the same — kill the app off your phone so the Chinese can no longer collect your data.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.