Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) said he supports the ban of TikTok from government devices in the interest of protecting data from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and believes that lawmakers' time is better spent focusing on other priorities.
Catherine L. Szpindor, the House of Representatives' chief administrative officer, announced in a memo in late December that the popular app must be deleted from House-issued devices, citing security risks, NBC News reported.
“Communist China’s spyware like TikTok should absolutely be forbidden on all government devices. Besides, Congress has more important things to do than viral dance crazes: Securing our borders, strengthening our military and standing up for America’s workers against China’s economic sabotage,” McCormick said in a statement provided to State Newswire.
Szpindor notified staff in an internal memo that her office’s cybersecurity unit had determined that TikTok posed a “high risk to users due to a number of security risks” and must be deleted from mobile phones, NBC reported.
TikTok said in a December statement that it is working to meaningfully address security concerns raised at the federal and state level under the oversight of China’s top national security agencies, NBC reported.
Speaking to an audience at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in early December that the FBI believes China can use TikTok to collect users' data, as well as manipulate the app's algorithm. That “allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations,” AP News reported. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance.
TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas said in a September Senate hearing that the Chinese government cannot access American users' data.
“We will never share data, period,” she said, AP News reported.
TikTok executive Shou Zi Chew wrote in a letter last summer that China-based ByteDance employees could access TikTok users' data when “subject to a series of robust cybersecurity controls and authorization approval protocols overseen by our U.S.-based security team," The New York Times reported.
In December, four ByteDance employees, two of whom were based in China, accessed the IP addresses and other data of American TikTok users, including journalists, reportedly in an effort to discern the source of leaked information, Engadget reported. ByteDance fired the four employees and said in a statement, "ByteDance condemns this misguided plan that seriously violated the company's Code of Conduct. We have taken disciplinary measures and none of the individuals found to have directly participated in or overseen the misguided plan remain employed at ByteDance."
Numerous governors have banned the popular app from state-issued devices, citing security concerns, including Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas and Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, Government Technology reported.
McCormick is an emergency room physician, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and Navy for more than 20 years before being elected to Congress, according to his website.
