TikTok’s Musical.ly Deal Needs US National Security Review: Senator Rubio

People are seen at the Bytedance Technology booth at the Digital China exhibition in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China on May 5, 2019. Reuters

WASHINGTON—Senator Marco Rubio on Oct. 9 asked a U.S. national security panel to review TikTok owner ByteDance Technology Co.’s acquisition of Musical.ly, arguing TikTok is used by the Chinese regime to censor politically sensitive content.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Rubio said Chinese-owned apps “are increasingly being used to censor content and silence open discussion on topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese Government and Communist Party.”