Senator Michael Bennet Calls For TikTok To Be Removed From App Store And Play Store

JAKARTA - Senator Michael Bennet, a Democrat who is also on the intelligence committee in the US Senate in his letter Thursday, February 2, requested that TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, be removed from the app store run by Apple Inc and Alphabet's Google. This is because the short video social media application poses a risk to national security,

The app, which has been banned by Congress from federal government devices, has come under increasing criticism over fears that the Chinese government could use it to extract data about Americans or advance Chinese interests.

"No company subject to the behest of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has the power to collect such vast data about the American people or create content for nearly a third of our population," Bennett wrote in a letter to Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO, Tim Cook.

"Given this risk, I urge you to immediately remove TikTok from your respective app stores," he wrote, as quoted by Reuters.

Prior to Bennett's letter, Republicans had largely led the charge on TikTok and matters of national security, although Democratic Senator Dick Durbin had previously urged Americans to stop using the app.

In the House, now in Republican hands, the Foreign Affairs Committee plans to hold a vote this month on a bill aimed at blocking the use of TikTok in the United States.

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump attempted to block new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions that would have effectively prevented the use of TikTok in the United States, but the move was rejected by a court.

For its part, the company says the Chinese government cannot access US citizens' personal data or manipulate app content. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew will appear before the US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee in March.