GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Michigan News Source) – The calls to ban TikTok in the United States due to security concerns have been met with slow action and no legislation from Congress yet while they do a slow dance towards doing something that could possibly alienate and enrage millions of Americans, especially teenagers. A 2022 Pew survey showed that two-thirds of U.S. teenagers are on TikTok and 16% said they use it constantly. Overall, there are 150 million monthly active users of the app in the country.

MORE NEWS: Center Line’s ICE Deal Melts Under Public Pressure

FBI Director Christopher Wray has expressed multiple times in interviews and in front of Congress that TikTok is a security risk to the country. However, many American citizens and politicians continue to use it.

Even though Michigan Democrats finally banned the app on state devices in the beginning of March of this year, Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has about 206K followers on TikTok, still uses the platform. She told The Hill, “We use TikTok on one device that has nothing else on it. It is a communication tool. We don’t do it because it’s fun, although some people think what I put out there can be fun on occasion.”

Michigan News Source reported on a visit by FBI Director Wray at the University of Michigan where he was questioned about TikTok and whether it was a threat to national security. Wray said that having control of TikTok gives the Chinese government the potential to “leverage the app in ways that I think should concern us.” Those concerns include changing algorithms, manipulating content, stealing user data, getting access to the software and devices of millions of users and engaging in espionage operations.

In March, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before Congress to give testimony about the platform and said that TikTok operates independently of its Chinese parent firm, ByteDance Ltd. He wasn’t able to verify that ByteDance employees didn’t have access to TikTok data but has “seen no evidence” of it happening.

Democratic Delaware Representative Lisa Blunt said after questioning him, “We came here hoping to hear some action that would alleviate our concerns. I’ve not been reassured by anything you’ve said so far. I think quite frankly your testimony has raised more questions for me than answers.”

Chew received bipartisan ire and harsh questions amidst a push by lawmakers and the Biden administration to force ByteDance Ltd. to sell its share of TikTok or have the platformed banned in the United States altogether. But those may just be empty threats as it’s been six weeks since the hearings and not much has taken place since then.

MORE NEWS: Reporter Said Principal, Angry Fans Harassed Him At Match Involving Trans Athlete

Manipulating content, what FBI director Wray warned about, is possibly what happened yesterday when TikTok suspended the Acton Institute, a Grand Rapids think tank, after they posted videos of Jimmy Lai, the jailed journalist and pro-democracy activist in Hong Kong, who founded the Apple Daily newspaper there. Apple Daily openly criticizes the Chinese regime.

Lai has been in prison for the past 29 months and has been a prominent critic of the Chinese Communist Party. He was arrested in August of 2020 for violating the territory’s new national security law and then later he was accused of fraud. He was jailed until April 2021 and then given an additional 14 months in prison organizing illegal protests.

Michigan U.S. Congressman John Moolenaar said in a statement about the Acton suspension from TikTok, “CCP-controlled TikTok just censored a West Michigan think tank for telling the truth. This is yet another example of how the CCP uses its resources in America to expand its influence over our communities. TikTok claims to be independent from the CCP, but this shows otherwise. I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to ban Tiktok or force its sale to an American company.”

Moolenaar went on to say, “Michigan residents and their leaders should take note of how in just the past few years the CCP is getting more aggressive in using its resources in America including buying farmland, running secret police stations, and using social media. It would be wrong to allow a CCP-affiliated company to build a factory in Michigan.”

Moolenaar was referring to the Whitmer backed Chinese-linked Gotion battery plant project which has been a controversial issue in the state. Many lawmakers and two former ambassadors, in addition to community members in and around Big Rapids, have expressed concerns about the plant regarding their Chinese ties, environmental issues, security issues, water usage and more.

Acton Institute Communications Director Eric Kohn is the producer of the documentary film “The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s Extraordinary Struggle for Freedom” and he posted around 11 a.m. today that the Acton account had been restored and that the two videos that TikTok had removed were restored as well. Tiktok told Wall Street Journal Opinion that the account was removed in error. Kohn said in his tweet, “We still haven’t heard anything directly from TikTok about why our account was suspended in the first place, why these videos were removed, how they allegedly violated the ‘community guidelines.’”