The app is used by more than 100 million Americans. The NSA, part of the Defense Department, is the agency responsible for U.S. cryptographic and communications intelligence and security.
The U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, in 2020 ordered Chinese company ByteDance to divest TikTok because of fears that user data could be passed onto China’s government.
"The swiftest and most thorough way to address any national security concerns about TikTok is for CFIUS - of which the Department of Defense and the NSA are a part - to adopt the proposed agreement that we worked with them on for nearly two years," said TikTok representative Brooke Oberwetter, adding that TikTok's "status has been debated in public in a way that is divorced from the facts of that agreement and what we've achieved already." For three years, TikTok has been seeking to assure the United States that the personal data of American citizens cannot be accessed and its content cannot be manipulated by China's Communist Party or anyone else under Beijing's influence. TikTok, a unit of China's ByteDance, has come under increasing fire over fears that user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests. TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew is due to appear before the U.S. Congress on March 23.
A bipartisan group of 12 U.S. senators is set to introduce legislation on Tuesday that would give Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo new powers to ban TikTok and other foreign-based technologies if they are found to pose national security threats. (Reporting by Suzanne Smalley; Editing by Will Dunham and Mark Porter)
