“In light of this new report,” the lawmakers wrote, “we ask that your agency immediately initiate a Section 5 investigation on the basis of apparent deception by TikTok, and coordinate this work with any national security or counter-intelligence investigation that may be initiated by the U.S. Department of Justice.”
Section 5 of the FTC Act authorizes the agency to prosecute unfair and deceptive business practices. The FTC and TikTok didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The letter marks the latest swing at TikTok by US officials over years-long bipartisan concerns that the Chinese government may use its national security laws to compel ByteDance to hand over data on US TikTok users, with what the US says could be potential risks to its security.
While there is no evidence that has actually occurred, the BuzzFeed report appeared to validate those concerns by showing that ByteDance’s employees within China do have access to US TikTok users’ information. At the time of the report, TikTok told CNN it has “consistently maintained that our engineers in locations outside of the US, including China, can be granted access to US user data on an as-needed basis.”
