Washington, D.C. — Following a statement yesterday from Federal Communications Commissions Commissioner Brendan Carr urging the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to ban short form video app TikTok, the American Economic Liberties Project released a statement.

“It is unacceptable for policymakers to continue sitting idly by as TikTok claims a dominant market position in the U.S. information space,” said Lucas Kunce, National Security Director of the American Economic Liberties Project. “TikTok’s deep connections to the Chinese government, ability to manipulate public opinion through algorithmic targeting, along with an increasing trove of U.S. user data present legitimate national security risks. The capacity for the Chinese government to surveil and spy on US citizens in this space cannot be overstated, with reports just last week that ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, was using its U.S. platform and data to surveil U.S. citizens.”

“These concerns bear striking similarities to the issues of other dominant targeted advertising-fueled firms like Google and Facebook, the latter of which has a harmful track record of election interference despite domestic ownership,” added Kunce. “The amount of data and dominant market positions that these firms enjoy create national security concerns. We encourage policymakers to not only ban TikTok from the U.S. market, but take additional steps to remove Section 230 protections on online behavioral advertising based on personalize data to ensure all platforms are safe for democracy.”

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.