Ban TikTok? Yes, But Congress Needs to Explain Why

If members of Congress want to ban TikTok, they need to do a better job explaining why. Simply lecturing the company’s CEO when he testifies in Washington this week isn’t going to cut it.

It’s clear that TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, won’t operate as it does today in perpetuity. Republicans, Democrats and the intelligence community are concerned that any company with Chinese ownership ultimately answers to the Chinese government, which raises a host of national security issues — from data security to propaganda — for a platform used by more than 100 million Americans, predominantly those under 35. Late last week,reports surfaced of a Justice Departmentinvestigation into the company’s surveillance of Americans.