US senators call for security probe of TikTok

Two senior US senators called for the government to study national security risks possibly posed by Chinese-owned video app TikTok, saying it could leave American users vulnerable to Beijing’s spying.

With 500 million users worldwide, TikTok has exploded in popularity in the past two years, offering a platform to produce and publish music-synced videos up to 60 seconds long.

In a letter to acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Tom Cotton suggested that TikTok’s owner ByteDance could be forced to share user information with Chinese intelligence.

It could also conceivably offer Beijing’s spies a backdoor into users’ smartphones and computers, similar to allegations against Chinese telecoms giant Huawei.

“With over 110 million downloads in the US alone, TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore,” they wrote, urging the intelligence community to “conduct an assessment of the national security risks” posed by the app.