A group of senior Republicans want lawmakers in Washington banned from using TikTok, claiming the app is a ploy by China to spy on Americans.
The 17 members of Congress labeled the video-sharing platform a “de facto spyware app” in a letter published Monday.
“We urge you to make an amendment to the Senate and House Rules to prohibit members of Congress from using TikTok for official use,” they wrote.
The group, which wrote to lawmakers responsible for rules for members of Congress, accused the app of “gathering data and possibly spying on Americans.”
The call was led by Dan Crenshaw, the Republican representative for Texas’ second district.
Their letter comes after the Montana House of Representatives voted for a full ban on Friday, though questions remain about how it will be enforced.
It also follows the company’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, who faced a fiery four-and-a-half grill from angry lawmakers over privacy concerns last month in Washington.
Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, battled a range of broadsides from lawmakers across the political spectrum last month. He suggested that the US government was being hypocritical in not wanting to regulate Facebook in the same way.
But officials in Washington insist the platform poses a serious national security risk to the United States and that the Chinese government has access to US users’ data
And last month, the White House warned Chinese parent company Byte Dance that they must relinquish their stake in the company or face an outright ban.
It provoked a furious response from the Chinese government, which accused the US of spreading “false information” about TikTok and data security.
Former President Donald Trump had effectively tried to ban the app by signing an executive order, but the move was overturned in court.
Last year, lawmakers and their staff in Washington were told to remove the Chinese-owned video app from their official devices.
Officials ordered the change because of the “high risk due to a number of security vulnerabilities.”
“If you have the TikTok app on your House mobile device, you will be contacted to remove it,” the memo, which was sent out in December, read.
TikTok has become a popular way for some congressmen to communicate with younger voters.
Democrat Jeff Jackson of North Carolina’s 14th district has amassed just over 1.6 million followers with his regular updates on politics.
It makes him the most watched US congressman on the platform.
Far-left lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez denounced the Biden administration’s threat to ban the Chinese video-sharing app in the United States.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic representative for New York’s 14th district, recently came up with the plan for a nationwide ban on TikTok.
“It’s important to discuss how unprecedented a move this would be. The United States has never banned a social media company from existing, from operating within our borders,” she said in her first-ever video on the Chinese app.
An estimated 150 million Americans have downloaded TikTok, the majority of whom are between the ages of 10 and 30.
According to online documents, Byte Dance and TikTok have collectively spent more than $13 million on federal lobbying since 2019.
Regulators around the world are concerned that the app is just a ruse by the Beijing regime to collect data and information on their citizens.
Britain last month banned ministers and staffers from downloading TikTok to their official government phones.
And EU officials in Brussels are now also banned from using it on their professional devices.
But no country in the 27-member bloc has moved to copy the Biden administration and push for a full nationwide ban on the software.
TikTok critics have said new Chinese privacy laws require Chinese companies to share data with the Chinese government.
Several Western tech companies, such as Airbnb and LinkedIn, are downsizing or leaving China altogether as a result of draconian legislation.
TikTok is instead proposing a $1.5 billion security plan called Project Texas, under which US users’ data will be shielded and monitored by Texas-based Oracle.
The plan would include independent observers and auditors to ensure that neither ByteDance nor Chinese officials would have access to certain data.
The company insists it is completely independent and does not share any data with the Chinese government.
A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment on this story.