Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) says that TikTok should have no role in the upcoming first-ever U.S. Cyber Games.
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The games are a private industry-led effort to promote careers in cybersecurity, but receive funding from the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
That could be tough since the social media giant is a founding sponsor of the games and is on the advisory board alongside representatives of U.S. defense and intelligence agencies.
For Wicker, ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, that‘s the big problem and he made that clear in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
“Allowing TikTok to play any role in the first U.S. Cyber Games, including joining its board alongside U.S. federal officials, is unacceptable,” Wicker wrote. “TikTok should be given no opportunity to interfere in any of the nation’s cyber initiatives, let alone those carried out with financial support from American taxpayers.”
Wicker pointed out that last April the Chinese Communist Party took an ownership stake in a subsidiary of ByteDance, the parent of TikTok.
