Senators are calling for the Justice Department to investigate TikTok and Zoom's ties to China

• US lawmakers urged the Justice Department to investigate TIkTok and Zoom over their connections to China in a letter Thursday.
• "We are extremely concerned that Zoom and TikTok have disclosed private information about Americans to the PRC and engaged in censorship on behalf of the Chinese government," they wrote.
• The letter, sent by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, is the latest call by US lawmakers who have grown increasingly concerned about national security and privacy implications surrounding companies with ties to China.

Senators Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, and Josh Hawley, a Republican, wrote to the US Justice Department on Thursday to urge a probe of video technology company Zoom and social media company TikTok.

"Based on numerous reports, we are extremely concerned that Zoom and TikTok have disclosed private information about Americans to the [People's Republic of China] and engaged in censorship on behalf of the Chinese government," they said in the letter.

While both companies are headquartered in the US, TikTok is owned by Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance, and Zoom recently came under fire from American lawmakers after disclosing it had deactivated the accounts of three US-based human-rights activists at the request of the Chinese government (though it later reactivated the accounts).

"Zoom and TikTok have sought to conceal and distract from their meaningful ties to China, holding themselves out as American companies," the two lawmakers wrote, adding that they worried China could compel companies to censor or spy on Americans through "draconian intelligence laws, media regulations, and extrajudicial pressure."

The senators called for the DOJ to open a probe into both companies, saying Zoom and TikTok "have failed to answer even basic questions about their business operations, including who has access to personal information and when they comply with request from China or other governments."

TikTok is already the subject of a similar probe from the US Treasury Department. Various US politicians including Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as the major branches of the US military, have all expressed concerns or told staff not to use the app.

Both companies have sought to distance themselves from perceptions that they are subject to influence from Beijing.

"TikTok is working to be the industry leader in transparency and accountability, and our Transparency and Accountability Centers give unprecedented access to our algorithms, content moderation, and data security practices" a spokesperson told Business Insider.

The spokesperson said TikTok's content moderation teams and US user data are located in the US and "aren't influenced by any foreign government," and that it hasn't shared user data with the Chinese government "and would not do so if asked."

TikTok's new US-based CEO, Kevin Mayer wrote a blog post this week committing the company to transparency, and suggesting that Americans have nothing to fear from the app.

"TikTok has become the latest target, but we are not the enemy," Mayer wrote.

Zoom said it would not comply with future censorship requests following backlash over the account deactivations, and introduced end-to-end encryption in June after it got slammed for "mistakenly" using data centers in China.

Zoom did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Chris Reese)