U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, of Virginia, is warning parents about the dangers of TikTok, and lawmakers are urging parents to reconsider allowing the popular video-sharing app on their kids’ phones, due to its connection to China.
Senators are stepping up their public scrutiny of TikTok as the Biden administration considers allowing the app to continue to be used in the U.S., under a unique agreement.
Warner, a Democrat and the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has had concerns about TikTok for a long time and he cited them during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
“All of that data that your child is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing,” Warner said.
Warner said he doesn’t often agree with former President Donald Trump, but said he believes he was right to push for the app to be banned in the United States. President Joe Biden revoked a Trump executive order earlier this year.
Warner said, “If you’re a parent, and you’ve got a kid on TikTok, I would be very, very concerned.”
Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, also urged people to take a closer look at what they and their kids may be scrolling through on their phones.
“It’s not just the content you upload to TikTok, but all the data on your phone — other apps, all your personal information, even facial imagery, even where your eyes are looking on your phone,” he said on Fox.
Cotton called TikTok “one of the most massive surveillance programs ever, especially on America’s young people.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, is introducing legislation that would ban TikTok from being used in the U.S.
Warner and Rubio earlier this year sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting that the FTC formally investigate TikTok and its Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance.
Their letter followed reports that the social media platform has allowed China to access U.S. users’ private data, despite claims that the data was protected.
The Biden administration is reviewing a proposal that would allow TikTok to keep being used in the U.S. under ByteDance, routed in the U.S. through servers maintained by Oracle.
TikTok has denied that information from American users is shared with the Chinese government, but lawmakers are skeptical.
“TikTok is an enormous threat,” Warner said, noting it’s a “massive collector of information,” which can come from the many young people who use it. “They can visualize even down to your keystrokes.”
Cotton said people should delete the app from their phones, and even consider getting new phones, if they’ve been using TikTok.
