The Senate Intelligence Committee has sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission asking that it open an investigation into whether TikTok misled U.S. lawmakers about China-based employees of its parent company, ByteDance, accessing American user data.

The letter, signed by committee chairman Senator Mark Warner and vice chairman Senator Marco Rubio, cites “repeated misrepresentations by TikTok concerning its data security, data processing, and corporate governance practices.”

It references a bombshell BuzzFeed News report that China-based employees of ByteDance regularly accessed sensitive U.S. user data into early 2022...

The letter also highlights BuzzFeed News’ reporting that TikTok employees who work with sensitive U.S. user data continue to report to ByteDance executives in Beijing, despite TikTok’s recent claims to the Senate Intelligence Committee that “all corporate governance decisions are wholly firewalled from their PRC-based parent, ByteDance.”

The FTC confirmed receipt of the letter, but declined to comment.