TikTok- the world’s newest craze. The China-owned app allows users to post short videos, usually of comical nature. The app originally launched in 2016, but has only now become popular. The app is owned by a Beijing-based company called ByteDance.
ByteDance bought musical.ly, an app where users can make short videos lip syncing, in 2017 for at least $800 million. They used this purchase to then merge the app with TikTok.
A seemingly innocent app has earned the attention of the U.S. government, who has decided to launch a national security review of the app. The concern is that the app is taking user information from the app and sending the data to China.
The accusations are being reviewed by the United States Committee on Foreign Investment (the committee in charge of taking care of national security implications of foreign direct investments.) This was followed by requests from multiple lawmakers to investigate the app.
In a letter directed to Joseph Maguire, the director of national intelligence, the concerned senators wrote “with over 110 million downloads in the U.S. alone, TikTok is a potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore”.
According to research firm Sensor Tower, Tik Tok has been downloaded more than 750 million times in the past 12 months.