US lawmakers urge commerce department to put TikTok-parent ByteDance on export control list

Lawmakers urged that China-based ByteDance be added to ‘Entity List’ to address ‘critical vulnerabilities’ created by company’s access to US software

Request comes after efforts have stalled in Congress to ban TikTok or give the Biden administration new powers to restrict the short-video-sharing app

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Published: 4:33am, 9 Feb 2024Updated: 5:39am, 9 Feb 2024

A group of 15 US lawmakers on Thursday urged the Commerce Department to add TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to a government export control list to restrict its access to American software.

The lawmakers, led by Republican congressman Dan Crenshaw and Democrat Josh Gottheimer, in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo urged that ByteDance be added to what is known as the “Entity List” in order “to address critical vulnerabilities created by the company’s access to US software”.

The request comes after efforts have stalled in Congress to ban TikTok or give the Biden administration new powers to restrict the short-video-sharing app, which is used by more than 170 million Americans. Security concerns about TikTok include the potential that the Chinese government could use it to control data on millions of US users.

The Commerce Department did not immediately comment on the letter.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said TikTok “poses national security risks”. Photo: Reuters

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in October had said that TikTok “poses national security risks” and said she supported legislation giving Commerce new tools to address risks from apps.