Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, announced that the U.S. is considering banning TikTok due to concerns over Chinese surveillance.

The U.S. government is considering a ban on TikTok, according to Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo. On Monday (July 6th), Pompeo appeared on Fox News to speak with host Laura Ingraham about the government’s potential decision to ban the app, citing concerns over Chinese surveillance as the primary reason. “We are taking this very seriously and we are certainly looking at it,” Pompeo told Ingraham. “We have worked on this very issue for a long time, whether its the problem of having Huawei technology in your infrastructure—we’ve gone all over the world and we are making real progress getting that out—we had declared ZTE a danger to American national security.”

“With respect to Chinese apps on people’s cell phones,” he continued, “I can assure you the United States will get this one right too.” He went on to warn Americans that downloading the app could be dangerous, as it is believed to put users’ private data into “the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.” However, a spokesperson for TikTok insists that they have “never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.”

—HNHH