Sen. Marsha Blackburn calls on colleagues to get off TikTok
WASHINGTON D.C. (WDEF) – Senator Marsha Blackburn is asking her fellow lawmakers in Washington to ditch TikTok and to stop encouraging others to use it.
The social media site has been the center of a generational controversy over it’s ties to China.
The concern is that the Chinese company could be forced to turn over private data on users to their government and military.
Lawmakers have been pushing bans on accessing the app, including a new law signed last week in Tennessee making universities cut off WiFi access for TikTok and other Chinese apps.
Sen. Blackburn and several other Republicans have written a letter to their colleagues challenging them to lead by example.
“It is troublesome that some members continue to disregard these clear warnings and are even encouraging their constituents to use TikTok to interface with their elected representatives – especially since some of these users are minors,” wrote the members. “We feel this situation warrants further action to protect the privacy of both sensitive congressional information and the personal information of our constituents. To that end, we urge you to enact a change to the Senate and House rules to ban members of Congress from using TikTok for official use.”
