Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
On Wednesday, two senior senators, Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Tom Cotton (R-AR), took aim at the Chinese-owned video app, TikTok, and called for US intelligence officials to investigate it for any threats to national security it may pose.
The letter to Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire, which was first reported in The Washington Post on Thursday, prompts officials to investigate TikTok’s data collection practices to determine whether the Chinese government has any say in what content Americans see on the app.
“Given these concerns, we ask that the Intelligence Community conduct an assessment of the national security risks posed by TikTok and other China-based content platforms operating in the U.S. and brief Congress on…