WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the highest-ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement after voting to divest the ownership of TikTok from ByteDance, a Chinese internet technology company. Senator Wicker supports countering the influence of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on the social media application. 

“TikTok is not an ordinary social media app. The CCP-influenced platform can use our own data against us and seeks to influence American public opinion,” Senator Wicker said. 

The bill Senator Wicker voted on does not ban TikTok. The platform would still remain available to users, provided it is purchased by a company not based in China nor more than 20 percent owned by Chinese persons. The measure extends the timeline for the company to sell the app to nine months, with a possible additional three months if a sale is in progress.

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