Rubio asks Justice Dept. to investigate TikTok CEO for alleged perjury

Senator Marco Rubio sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, requesting an investigation to determine whether Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, committed perjury when he testified before the House in March.

The Florida Republican believes Chew lied under oath when he said China did not store TikTok's U.S. user data because of reports that have surfaced showing otherwise.

"I therefore request that you investigate whether Chew committed perjury when he falsely stated that TikTok has not stored the user data of Americans in China and urge you to be transparent with the American people about the threats posed by TikTok," the senator asked.

Marco Rubio recalled in his letter that the app's CEO claimed that data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore. He also made mention of a Forbes article that was later published debunking Chew and highlighted that the new information further supports that the social network "is a powerful tool of espionage and influence for the Chinese Communist Party and should be banned."

The media report claims that the platform has stored sensitive financial information (including social security and tax ID numbers) of U.S. and European users on servers in China.

"TikTok uses various internal tools and databases from its Beijing-based parent ByteDance to manage payments to creators who earn money through the app, including many of its biggest stars in the United States and Europe. The same tools are used to pay outside vendors and small businesses working with TikTok," said Forbes.

It should be noted that several countries, such as Canada and some members of the European Union, have already taken measures against the video platform, citing security concerns.