It's not clear that Microsoft's interest in buying the Chinese short-form video app TikTok will benefit the United States, and there are many questions about the purchase, Sen. Josh Hawley said Wednesday, adding that he's sending Microsoft a letter to outline his concerns.
"Does that mean that Microsoft is going to make sure that there is absolutely no Chinese involvement from the Chinese parent company ByteDance in this Microsoft deal?" the Missouri Republican said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "Are they going to rebuild TikTok? Are they going to make sure that they have total control? I'm not clear on any of that."
He added that it appears that even with a purchase by Microsoft, it appears that ByteDance will continue to maintain some access or even share the platform and data, and "none of that is acceptable. We have got to protect Americans here and Americans' data security."
His comments come as House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Reps. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., called on Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to provide a classified briefing on TikTok and other Chinese technology platforms.
"TikTok is a platform that is basically a Trojan horse for the Chinese government," Hawley said. "They are able to scoop up all of our data. I mean, if you use TikTok, here's the problem. They are monitoring your keystrokes. They are monitoring your contact list. They are looking, of course, at the videos you post. They are also maybe accessing the emails that you send, your search history. All of it."
He also said that he does not think China should make any profit on the app's sale, as "they have been using this to spy on us."
Hawley added that he thinks TikTok should be banned unless there is a total separation between the app and China, including guaranteeing that the communist nation won't have a backdoor into the app that will allow it to run it secretly.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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