Iowa’s Chuck Grassley: TikTok a ‘real threat to our national security’

Members of Iowa's congressional delegation say TikTok, a short-video social media app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, presents a threat to national security.

TikTok, used by 150 million Americans, has raised bipartisan concerns among federal lawmakers that its ties to its parent company may endanger sensitive user data. The federal government and several states, including Iowa, have banned the app from government devices.

Government officials have pointed to laws in China that allow the government to demand data from private companies and are worried China could abuse content algorithms to promote misinformation.

The CEO of TikTok, Shou Chew, testified in Congress last week that the company keeps user data stored in the U.S., casting TikTok as an independent company.

The testimony didn't sway lawmakers.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told a reporter Wednesday he thinks TikTok "is a real threat to our national security."

"I think I would vote just not to have it operate in the United States at all," Grassley said. "But legislation takes a more nuanced approach to it."

White House officials have pushed for the sale of the social media app, and earlier this month a House committee advanced legislation that would grant President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok in the U.S.

Grassley discounted any concerns about a potential TikTok ban violating the First Amendment, noting that users could migrate to other apps.

"You have to respect the right of free speech, but TikTok itself is not free speech," Grassley said. "It's an instrument to let other people express their constitutional rights of free speech.

“And if you did away with that, you wouldn't be affecting people's right to free speech, because just think of the dozens of other platforms they go to, to do just exactly that."

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, published an op-ed column this week that called TikTok a "dangerous platform China has weaponized against Americans."

Ernst praised efforts to ban TikTok from government devices. She called for prohibiting other taxpayer-funded institutions, such as universities or airports, from advertising or partnering with the platform.

Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Iowa's 1st Congressional District and a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that grilled TikTok's CEO last week, said in a prepared statement: “There are serious, bipartisan concerns about TikTok's affiliation with ByteDance and the Chinese Communist Party, its security measures, and its content moderation.

"The committee invited Mr. Chew to have an open and honest dialogue, but unfortunately, we weren’t given sufficient reason to believe his company is doing enough to protect its users,” Miller-Meeks said.

“Mr. Chew has a long way to go before any of us are convinced that TikTok isn’t feeding data to the CCP or manipulating content to harm our children.”

Rep. Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, called TikTok a "national security threat" and tweeted, "It's time to ban this Trojan horse spyware."