A majority of Americas see China-owned TikTok as a threat to the national security of the United States, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.
About six-in-ten Americans (59 percent) see TikTok as a major or minor threat to U.S. national security, according to a new Pew Research Center survey of American adults.
UNITED STATES – MARCH 23: TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is seen during a break in the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing titled TikTok: How Congress Can Safeguard American Data Privacy And Protect Children From Online Harms, in Rayburn Building on Thursday, March 23, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Three girls watching TikTok videos (Luiza Nalimova/Getty)
Moreover, only 17 percent of Americans say the platform is not a threat to national security, and another 23 percent say they aren’t sure.
Opinions about the national security threat posed by TikTok also differ along partisan lines, with seven-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents saying the Chinese app is a threat, compared with 53 percent of Democrats and Democratic leaners.
Those who see TikTok as a U.S. national security threat also vary by age, with a mere 13 percent of adults ages 18 to 29 saying the Chinese platform is a major threat, with 46 percent concurring among Americans ages 65 and older.
They survey results come as the app faces scrutiny from lawmakers over its ties to China and the security of users’ data. TikTok is owned by the Chinese internet conglomerate ByteDance, which has already been caught snooping on U.S. and UK journalists in multiple instances.
As Breitbart News previously reported, ByteDance employees have obtained the private user data of U.S. journalists. The Chinese company was also recently discovered having tracked a UK journalist via her cat’s TikTok account, which didn’t even have her real name on it.
Meanwhile, a former executive at ByteDance says the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has “supreme access” to all data held by TikTok’s parent company, including on servers in the United States. He added that the CCP even has a special office inside the company, which monitors Bytedance and TikTok, guiding the entities in advancing “core Communist values.”
While lawmakers at the federal level mull over what to do about TikTok, some states are taking action against the Chinese platform.
In May, Montana became the first U.S. state to ban TikTok. Governor Greg Gianforte (R) announced that he singed legislation in order to protect his state’s residents from “the Chinese Communist Party.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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