TikTok, whose parent company ByteDance is controlled by communist China, is reportedly under federal criminal investigation for surveilling U.S. citizens.
The news comes as U.S. lawmakers released bipartisan legislation earlier this month that would allow the U.S. to ban the app. The Biden administration has stated that it supports the legislation.
Forbes reported that the FBI, Department of Justice Criminal Division, Fraud Section, and U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia opened the criminal investigation over TikTok’s spying on American journalists.
Prosecutors have subpoenaed ByteDance over “efforts by its employees to access U.S. journalists’ location information or other private user data using the TikTok app.”
Forbes was the first to report that the Beijing-based company was surveilling U.S. journalists, and later reported that TikTok admitted that it happened.
TikTok
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