House Commerce Republicans Seek State Department Briefing on TikTok

House Commerce Committee Republicans on Monday requested a classified State Department briefing on TikTok, days after President Donald Trump threatened to ban the Chinese social media platform from the U.S. Microsoft is continuing talks to buy TikTok, after CEO Satya Nadella discussed it with Trump, it said Sunday: “Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns." It's committed to acquiring TikTok "subject to" a complete review, it said. House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, Ore.; House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, La.; and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Wash., raised concerns about the video app and alleged ties to a Chinese company doing secret face recognition and data harvesting. Walden and Rodgers cited previous complaints about TikTok on children’s privacy, corporate governance and COVID-19. Banning TikTok would threaten U.S. jobs and the livelihood of American content creators reliant on the app, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Vice President Daniel Castro said: “In a week where many policymakers have called for more competition in the tech sector, undermining one of the fastest-growing social media platforms would be a step in the wrong direction.” ACT|The App Association said it's encouraged by ongoing negotiations for Microsoft to buy TikTok: “While this is an ongoing negotiation with no guaranteed outcome, we strongly urge policymakers to avoid a government intervention in banning TikTok that could result in an unprecedented geofencing of access to an online service used by 50 million Americans a day and create significant disruption to the app economy.” The State Department didn’t comment. The Microsoft blog suggests Trump “at least tentatively blessed the deal,” said Cowen analyst Paul Gallant. The deal could strengthen Facebook’s argument against antitrust scrutiny, and it might invite more attention on Microsoft from policymakers in Washington, he said.