The Chinese-owned social media app has risen to take up more U.S. kids’ time than any other.
Will TikTok be banned in the U.S., and if so, why?
Politicians in the U.S. have voiced concerns in recent months that the Chinese-owned app is a national security threat, potentially providing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with masses of data on millions of Americans, including their location, and making them vulnerable to political disinformation.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is testifying before Congress on Thursday to outline security measures that could protect U.S. data from foreign adversaries.
Matthew Pottinger, the former deputy national security adviser to President Donald Trump from 2019 to 2021, said in February to the new House Select Committee on U.S.-China competition that TikTok “gives the Chinese Communist Party the ability to manipulate our social discourse, the news, to censor and suppress, or to amplify what tens of millions of Americans see and read, and experience and hear, through their social-media app”.
