US officials to brief senators on threats posed by TikTok, aide says

WASHINGTON: US national security officers will retain a closed-door briefing on Wednesday (Mar 20) for senators on the Commerce and Intelligence committees on threats posed by Chinese-owned instant video app TikTok, a committee aide urged Reuters on Monday.

The labeled briefing is being hosted by the chairs of the 2 committees, Heed Warner and Maria Cantwell, and the conclude Republicans on the panels, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. The Senate is infected about proceed after the Home of Representatives voted final week on a bill to force Chinese-basically basically based mostly ByteDance to divest TikTok within six months or face a ban.

The fate of TikTok, old by about 170 million Individuals, has turn into a most valuable field in Washington where lawmakers had been flooded with calls from TikTok users who oppose the laws.

Many lawmakers and the Biden administration notify TikTok poses national security risks because China would possibly compel TikTok to fragment American user recordsdata, whereas TikTok insists it has never and would never fragment US recordsdata.

TikTok says it has spent bigger than US$1.5 billion on the trouble to offer protection to US recordsdata and residential it in the United States.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chunk, who met with lawmakers final week, said the laws, if signed into regulation, “will lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States”.