TikTok is under mounting pressure of a national ban in the United State by some Republicans and Democrats in Congress.
Tiktok, a social video app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, is currently banned on federal devices and some college campuses due to privacy concerns.
In the fall, reports revealed that ByteDance had repeatedly accessed U.S. user data, planning to use TikTok to track the location of specific American citizens, including Forbes journalists.
ByteDance repeatedly denied using TikTok to “target” journalists or public figures.
However, after an internal investigation revealed that employees tracked journalists covering the company.
The company fired its chief internal auditor, who was in charge of masterminding the surveillance.
Sen Josh Hawley (R-MO) supported the TikTok ban on federal devices. It was enacted into law in December.
Republicans have long called for a ban, claiming TikTok would allow the Chinese government to gather information on American citizens. They are now joined by a small number of Democrats, including Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet.
He recently urged
Apple and Google to delete the app from their respective stores.
TikTok poses “national security concerns,” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing in November.
In December, President Joe Biden signed legislation to prohibit the use of TikTok on government-owned devices.
Following a wave of primarily Republican-led states passing similar legislation.
TikTok has been banned on school-owned devices and school wifi in a number of school and university systems since December.
Also Students have been discouraged from using TikTok on their personal devices.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers are attempting to go even further and enact a nationwide ban on TikTok.
