Senator urges Apple and Google to ban TikTok from their app stores

TikTok is facing another call to ban the app from a prominent lawmaker, Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, a Democrat who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee a letter to Apple and Google asking the companies to ban TikTok from their respective app stores.

In the letter, Bennet says that “TikTok as it stands [is] an unacceptable threat to the national security of the United States.” The letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai reiterates many of the same points raised by other lawmakers seeking to ban the app.

Specifically, Bennet raises the possibility that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, could be coerced via TikTok to “use its influence to further the interests of the Chinese government.” “Like most social media platforms, TikTok collects vast and complex data from its users, including facialprints and voiceprints,” writes Bennet. “Unlike most social media platforms, TikTok is a particular concern because Chinese law requires ByteDance, its Beijing-based parent company, to endorse, assist and collaborate with the work of the state intelligence agency.”