⁍ Marco Rubio called on the Trump administration to reject a proposed deal for Oracle to become a ‘trusted technology provider’ for TikTok’s U.S. operations.

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⁍ Rubio was the first senator to call on the administration to investigate TikTok.

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⁍ He said ‘serious questions’ remained about Oracle’s role, the technology it would provide to Bytedance, and the future of the application’s algorithm.

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– Republican Sen. Marco Rubio has become the first senator to call on the Trump administration to investigate TikTok, a US-based social media platform owned by China’s Bytedance, Reuters reports. In a letter to President Trump, Rubio says “serious questions” remain about Oracle’s role in TikTok, the technology it would provide to Bytedance, and the future of the application’s algorithm. Rubio says they are “heartened” the deal still requires government approval, but they “strongly urge the administration to reject such a proposal on national security grounds.” According to the Wall Street Journal, Oracle has agreed to buy TikTok for $350 million. But Rubio says “serious questions” remain about Oracle’s role in TikTok, the technology it would provide to Bytedance, and the future of the application’s algorithm. He says they are opposed to any deal “that would allow China-based or controlled entities to retain, control, or modify the code or algorithms that operate any US-based version of TikTok.” TikTok is popular in China and has more than 450 million monthly users.