The Trump administration is going to take a firm stance this week against companies that send data and information to China, starting with TikTok, White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro warned.
"Hey, it sounds like fun, but guess what? Every time you sign up for TikTok, all your information is potentially going right back to the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese military, and the Chinese government," Navarro told Fox News' "Justice" with Judge Jeanine Pirro.
"They can use this social these social media apps to steal your personal information, your business information, and also, judge, they use these social media apps to track you and surveil you and monitor your movements."
"So President Trump looked at this; Secretary Pompeo is waxing eloquent on it as well: This is a national security threat."
There is going to be some blowback on an outright ban of the app because it is so popular with anti-Trump movements, particularly those that signed up en mass to troll the Trump campaign Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally, but Navarro said it is critical the U.S. fight back against forced-technology transfer with China.
"Get on the Trump train on that, because that app you're using, fun as it may be, is dangerous," Navarro stress to Pirro.
Also, Navarro noted, China is waging a campaign to keep its hold on an avenue to monitor American users and even a China-friendly U.S. company Microsoft – founded by anti-Trump activist Bill Gates – has been rumored to consider buying the app.
"China has hired a whole bunch of American lobbyists," he said. "They put a puppet CEO in charge of that company. They're going to make it sound like, 'Oh, it can't hurt you,' this, that and the other thing. Don't fall for this."