Sen. Chuck Schumer said a US company should buy TikTok to prevent the Chinese government from accessing user data
- Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said a US company should buy TikTok to keep US user data safe and out of the hands of the Chinese government.
- The Senate minority leader tweeted the comments Monday morning, saying in part, "A safe way must be found for TikTok to continue."
- The remarks come days after news surfaced that Microsoft was in talks to acquire TikTok's US business amid strained US-China relations.
- American lawmakers have said TikTok's ties to China through its parent company, the tech firm ByteDance, poses national security concerns.
Sen. Chuck Schumer said a US company should buy the popular short video sharing app TikTok "so everyone can keep using it and your data is safe."
The Senate's Democratic leader tweeted the remarks on Twitter Monday morning following a hectic weekend as talks of a Microsoft acquisition of the company picked up steam.
"This is about privacy," Schumer wrote. "With TikTok in China, it's subject to Chinese Communist Party laws that may require handing over data to their government. A safe way must be found for TikTok to continue."
The comments come as ByteDance, the Chinese tech company that owns TikTok, continues to grapple with a potential US ban on the app. American lawmakers have been uneasy about such a ubiquitous social media platform with ties to China existing in the US.
One possible solution was for ByteDance to divest its US TikTok business, and news surfaced Friday that the Washington-based Microsoft has been in talks to purchase it. On the same day, President Trump said the US would be banning the app soon, a motion that TikTok's US office contradicted.
But on Sunday, Microsoft wrote in a blog post that it was indeed moving forward with exploring a possible acquisition of TikTok in the US following a discussion between CEO Satya Nadella and President Trump.