GOP rep says U.S. users should delete TikTok  

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) on Sunday said U.S. users should delete the social media app TikTok, owned by the China-based parent company ByteDance, over concerns about its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).  

“I recognize, particularly as a younger member of Congress, this will make me very unpopular with your teenagers and many others,” Gallagher told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” when asked if users should delete the app.  

“The question we have to ask is whether we want to give the CCP the ability to track our location, track what websites we visit even when we’re not using the TikTok app itself and, increasingly, since a large percentage of Americans use TikTok to get their news, whether we want them to have the ability to selectively edit that news,” Gallagher said.  

The lawmaker said ByteDance is “effectively controlled” by the CCP and likened U.S. use of TikTok to the hypothetical of letting the Soviet Union’s KGB “buy the New York Times” during the Cold War. 

“The ability to edit the news I think is a massive tool and weapon that we don’t want to give the CCP,” Gallagher said.  

The Senate on Wednesday voted to ban TikTok on government-issued phones in an effort to combat ongoing security concerns about the app.  

As the GOP readies to take control of the House in January, Gallagher has been tapped by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to lead the House Select Committee on China. 

Gallagher on Sunday underscored that he and McCarthy hope the committee is a bipartisan effort. 

“Speaker-elect McCarthy wants the Democrats to participate in this, he wants it to be serious. And to the extent possible, we want to identify where Congress can speak with one voice when it comes to the policy that best positions us to win this long-term competition with the CCP,” Gallagher said.