U.S. Senator Marco Rubio wants the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to conduct a full review of Beijing ByteDance Technology Co. Ltd.'s 2017 purchase of Musical.ly Inc., a California-based video sharing platform it later rebranded as TikTok.
According to the senator, the national security implications of the acquisition must be reviewed due to TikTok's alleged censorship of content deemed sensitive by the Chinese government, a move that poses "serious long-term challenges" to the U.S. and its allies.
Rubio's call to probe TikTok comes shortly after the U.S. Commerce Department added 28 Chinese companies, including tech startups Megvii Technology Ltd. and SenseTime Group Ltd., to its trade blacklist over their alleged violation of human rights.
TikTok is also being investigated in the U.K. over its handling of children's personal data.
