TikTok facing ongoing scrutiny, calls for ban by lawmakers

TikTok, the popular short-form social media video site with a parent company headquartered in China, is facing ongoing scrutiny and calls for its ban from lawmakers due to concerns about its impact on kids.

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Bob Latta, R-Ohio, members of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, are calling on TikTok to dislodge itself from parent company ByteDance. Ties to the Chinese Communist Party are questioned.

"Reporting confirms that TikTok executives know what Congress has known for years: TikTok is a threat to our children's well-being and our national security by design," Rodgers and Latta said in a joint statement released Saturday. "It's unsurprising that TikTok would attempt to hide the truth from parents and users about the platform's intentionally addictive nature, especially considering TikTok has refused to be honest about its ties to the Chinese Communist Party. This is why the Energy and Commerce Committee acted swiftly to pass the bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which is now law in the United States. The days of TikTok further manipulating and exploiting its users are numbered."

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act – without action since received in the Senate, read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation way back in March – is legislation passed to protect Americans and prevent foreign adversaries like China from "targeting, surveilling, and manipulating" the American people through online applications like TikTok.

The joint statement follows reports revealed in legislation documents outlining TikTok's role and the app's effect on minors.

Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in North Carolina filed a lawsuit against the company in a Wake County Superior Court. Other attorney generals supporting the filing are from New York, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, South Carolina, Vermont, Washington, California, and the District of Columbia.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew stated earlier this year that TikTok has 170 million active users monthly in the United States.

Policymakers have long feared that ByteDance would share data collected by its users from the U.S. with the Chinese Communist Party.

Congress has banned the app on all devices owned by the federal government.