FILE PHOTO: People are seen at the Bytedance Technology booth at the Digital China exhibition in Fuzhou, Fujian province, China May 5, 2019. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo
(Reuters) – U.S. Senator Marco Rubio on Wednesday said he will ask the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review TikTok owner Beijing Bytedance Technology Co’s acquisition of Musical.ly.
“Today I will be asking CFIUS to review TikTok’s acquisition of Musical.ly. Ample & growing evidence exists that TikTok’s platform for western markets, including the U.S., are censoring content in line with China’s communist government directives,” the Republican senator said in a tweet.
China’s Bytedance bought the Musical.ly video app for nearly $1 billion in December 2017. It later moved users to a revamped version of its homegrown competitor TikTok.
Reporting by Shubham Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Chris Reese