The US Transportation Security Administration said Sunday it was barring employees from using the Chinese-owned video app TikTok to post on the agency’s website.
The announcement came in the wake of warnings from Sen. Chuck Schumer that the popular app, which was banned by the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies, could pose a security threat due to questions over TikTok’s handling of user data.
“TikTok is not as innocent as it sounds,” Schumer said at a press conference at his Manhattan office Sunday. “It is owned by a Chinese government-owned company called Byte Dance. If you go on TikTok the Chinese government has your data. You have no recourse.”
“If you want to cause trouble what better thing to have than the information that TSA has?” he said. “It’s placing its own agency and the public in danger.”
TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein has posted TikTok-made videos on her Twitter page, most recently a Feb. 11 clip titled “Valentine’s Day trips for romantic travelers,” and a Feb. 5 video explaining what travelers can bring on board and what must be checked in.
However, in a statement Sunday, the agency said that, despite an active social media presence, TSA “has never published any content to TikTok, nor has it ever directed viewers to TikTok.”
“A small number of TSA employees have previously used TikTok on their personal devices to create videos for use in TSA’s social media outreach,” the statement said. “But that practice has since been suspended.”
The TSA did not respond to follow-up emails seeking clarification on what practice was suspended and whether agency employees are barred from using the app on their personal devices as well.
Angelo Roefaro, a spokesman for Schumer, said Sunday that if the TSA did cease posting videos through TikTok, it did so as recently as this weekend.
“If they did so today, that’s a good thing and the reason we did our press conference,” Roefaro said.