TikTok is currently owned under the parent company ByteDance, a Chinese company. With strengthening tensions, many lawmakers have been concerned about the linkage between TikTok and the Chinese government. The Justice Department labeled TikTok a “national-security threat of immense depth and scale,” arguing that data from the app’s 170 million U.S. users could be exploited in areas such as surveillance or misinformation campaigns. Lawmakers have called for a change of ownership or the ban of the app in the United States. 

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