GOP Lawmakers Seek To Prohibit Congress Members From Using TikTok

A group of Republican lawmakers are seeking to ban all Congress members from using TikTok for official purposes.

“We urge you to amend the House and Senate rules to bar members of Congress from continued use of TikTok and take any other appropriate measures to mitigate the risks of this de-facto, spyware app,” Senator Thom Tillis (North Carolina), Rep. Dan Crenshaw (Texas) and 15 other elected officials say in a letter sent Monday to leaders of the Senate and House administration committees.

Tillis and the others refer to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew's recent testimony at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, writing that his testimony made it clear “that all members of Congress must lead by example and immediately stop using the platform for official communications.”

Chew said at that hearing that TikTok's data practices were comparable to those of other tech companies.

The lawmakers contend in their letter that the hearing made it “blatantly clear to the public” that TikTok, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, “is mining data and potentially spying on American citizens.”

“Some members of Congress who regularly use the app have minimized the security threat to our nation, and their defense is not compelling, considering there are several popular social media apps that are not at the same risk for the potential transfer of sensitive, private information to an adversarial foreign government,” the letter continues.

Democrats in Congress have also expressed concern over TikTok, but several have opposed a ban, arguing that attempting to suppress an app relied on for communications would violate the First Amendment.

Late last week, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey) questioned Chew about several of the platform's policies, including how it uses consumer data for marketing.

Many states have recently banned the use of TikTok on government-owned devices, and Montana lawmakers on Friday passed a bill that aims to ban nearly all use of TikTok within the state.

TikTok has signaled that it would challenge such as a ban in court, if Montana's governor signs the bill.

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