U.S. Senator Calls on Apple and Google to Ban TikTok From App Stores

United States Senator Michael Bennet today penned a letter to the chief executives of Apple and Google demanding that they ban Chinese-owned TikTok from their app stores on national security grounds (via The New York Times).

tiktok logo
Bennet, a Democrat of Colorado and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent the letter to Apple's Tim Cook and Google's Sundar Pichai, saying that no company subject to "Chinese Communist Party dictates should have the power to accumulate such extensive data on the American people or curate content to nearly a third of our population."

"TikTok's vast influence and aggressive data collection pose a specific threat to US national security because of its parent company's obligations under Chinese law," wrote Bennet. "Article 7 of China's National Intelligence Law decrees that 'any organization or citizen shall support, assist, and cooperate with state intelligence work.' Article 14 provides Chinese state security agencies the authority to demand cooperation from companies like ByteDance, while Articles 16 and 17 allow intelligence agents to access relevant materials and files and make use of its communication tools and facilities."

Bennet goes on to cite a BuzzFeed News report from June last year that suggested TikTok engineers in China had access to the data of U.S. users between September 2021 and January 2022. "Everything is seen in China," said one TikTok employee in recordings reviewed by BuzzFeed, with the recordings also referencing a "Master Admin" engineer in China who "has access to everything."

Bennet's letter concludes: "Given these grave and growing concerns, I ask that you remove TikTok from your respective app stores immediately."

TikTok has been in the cross-hairs of U.S. regulators for years now, going back to the Trump administration's failed attempt to bar the app from U.S. app stores in September 2020. However, concerns over the app have heightened in the last few weeks after both Republicans and Democrats called for officials to impose stricter data collection restrictions or ban the app from the U.S. entirely.

For its part, TikTok's parent company ByteDance submitted a plan in August detailing how it plans to prevent the Chinese government from having access to data on U.S. users, and how it will offer the U.S. government oversight of the platform. The Biden administration has yet to respond to the company's plan.

In the meantime, at least 27 state governments have passed full or partial bans on the app, while a bipartisan bill introduced in Congress in December would ban the app for everyone in the United States. The House Foreign Affairs Committee plans to hold a vote on the bill this month.

Senator Bennet's full letter to Apple and Google can be read on Scribd.

Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Tag: TikTok

Popular Stories

iPhone SE 4 Thumb 1

'New' iPhone SE Product Listing Appears on French Website

Wednesday February 12, 2025 6:49 am PST by
As the wait continues for Apple's long-rumored, fourth-generation iPhone SE, French electronics retailer Boulanger has prematurely published a product listing for a "new" model of the iPhone SE. The placeholder page says the device is "coming soon," but it offers no further information, and the price shown is obviously not real. The listing was spotted by a reader of the French technology...
apple launch feb 2025 alt

What to Expect From the 'Apple Launch' Next Week

Thursday February 13, 2025 11:48 am PST by
Apple has yet to announce any new devices this year, but that could change starting next week. Apple CEO Tim Cook today said to "get ready" for a "launch" on Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," said Cook, in a social media post. The post includes an #AppleLaunch hashtag, along with a short video featuring an animated Apple logo inside of a circle....
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Next Week With These New Features for Your iPhone

Friday February 14, 2025 6:18 am PST by
The first iOS 18.4 beta for iPhones should be just around the corner, and the update is expected to include many new features and changes. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman expects the iOS 18.4 beta to be released by next week. Below, we outline what to expect from iOS 18.4 so far. Apple Intelligence for Siri Siri is expected to get several enhancements powered by Apple Intelligence on iOS...
apple launch feb 2025

Tim Cook Teases an 'Apple Launch' Next Wednesday

Thursday February 13, 2025 8:07 am PST by
In a social media post today, Apple CEO Tim Cook teased an upcoming "launch" of some kind scheduled for Wednesday, February 19. "Get ready to meet the newest member of the family," he said, with an #AppleLaunch hashtag. The post includes a short video with an animated Apple logo inside a circle. Cook did not provide an exact time for the launch, or share any other specific details, so...
iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro With All-New Camera Bar Design Allegedly Revealed

Thursday February 13, 2025 5:49 pm PST by
Apple's next-generation iPhone 17 Pro will feature three rear cameras arranged in a familiar triangular layout, but the cameras will be housed in an all-new rectangular camera bar with rounded corners, according to YouTube channel Front Page Tech. iPhone 17 Pro camera design render created by Asher for Front Page Tech In a video uploaded today, Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser said the camera ...
M4 Mac mini Apple Video

Apple's Refurbished Mac Mini Pricing Has a Problem

Thursday February 13, 2025 6:20 am PST by
Apple this week began selling refurbished Mac mini models with the M4 chip for the first time, but this has led to a pricing conundrum. In the United States, Apple is offering a refurbished Mac mini with the base M4 chip, 256GB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and Gigabit Ethernet for $509, down from $599 new. This is the standard 15% discount that Apple offers on refurbished Macs. The issue is...
M4 mini Glowing Blue

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished M4 Macs

Wednesday February 12, 2025 11:35 am PST by
Apple today added MacBook Pro and Mac mini models with M4 series chips to its certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland for the first time since the computers were introduced in October 2024. Some refurbished MacBook Pro models with M4 chips are also available in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, and select other European countries. ...
iPhone 16 Apple Store

iPhone 17 in New Sizes This Year: What to Know

Thursday February 13, 2025 2:45 am PST by
Last year, Apple tweaked iPhone 16 Pro screen sizes to make them bigger than 2023's iPhone 15 Pro models, and this year we are also expecting a change in the size of the displays in the iPhone 17 lineup. Here's what we know. Standard iPhone 17 Apple could introduce a new display size for the standard iPhone 17 model in 2025. The iPhone 17 could measure in at 6.3 inches, up from 6.1 inches,...
Apple Ad on X

Apple Resumes Advertising on X

Wednesday February 12, 2025 2:18 pm PST by
Apple this month started advertising on X for the first time in more than a year. The company had stopped advertising on the social media platform in November 2023 following controversial remarks made by its owner Elon Musk. For example, the @Apple account is running an ad promoting Safari's privacy features. The ad was spotted by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The @AppleTV account has a...

Top Rated Comments

Danfango Avatar
27 months ago
Good. I'm fed up of my daughter showing me the **** my ex wife posts on it.
Score: 56 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Akrapovic Avatar
27 months ago
I feel it's a bit odd that we will discuss banning TikTok because it's likely giving data to China, but we know 100% for certain, proven in court, that Facebook is selling even more data to third party companies, who are operating with China, and nobody is calling out for Facebook and Instagram to be banned.

Is it only bad when China funnels data to China? It's not bad when Americans funnel data to China via some wealthy companies?

The other issue is we sit and call China a terrible country because they ban apps from operating in it. So in response to this, we're going to ban apps from operating within our countries. Man, it doesn't look good when you write it down, does it?
Score: 38 Votes (Like | Disagree)
contacos Avatar
27 months ago
If Huawei can be banned in the US over privacy concerns, so should this App
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Pilot Jones Avatar
27 months ago
I believe since September 1, 2021, it has been a law in China that any Chinese entity processing data, in big or small amounts, is perpetually obliged to record and present that information to whatever extent the CCP government deems necessary.

Given that fact, why on earth was TikTok even initially allowed to proliferate the way it did, I will never understand. The damage is long done and that ship has already sailed.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DMG35 Avatar
27 months ago
I don't know, Google and Facebook steal users data all day every day and none of these Senators seem to mind. This seems more like big tech lobbying these senators because of the ad revenue that Tik Tok has taken from them. No matter what they try they can't copy or make anything as popular as Tik Tok so they want it shut down.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
27 months ago
Good! We are better off without it. I feel like the App is spying on us and collecting the data on another level.

TikTok should be banned. Honestly, I don’t think it brings anything to this world. We waste so much time just on scrolling.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)