FBI Director Chris Wray told the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee during a Wednesday hearing that the Chinese Communist Party can take control of "millions" of Americans' phones using video-sharing app TikTok.

"I think the most fundamental piece that cuts across every one of those risks and threats that you mentioned that I think Americans need to understand is that something that's very sacred in our country, that difference between the private sector and the public sector, that's a line that is non-existent in the way that CCP operates."

Wray said the Chinese government can use TikTok to control the data and software on millions of users' devices as well as drive narratives on American users. He also added that "we're not sure that we would see many of the outward signs of it happening," in reference to whether the CCP could drive narratives through TikTok.

"If you look at the Chinese government's gobbling up of information and data, and then the use of AI and other tools, ultimately supercomputing, things like that, to marshal all that data to conduct targeting for espionage, targeting for IP theft, targeting for the all the things that I and others on this panel have been calling out about the Chinese government," Wray said. "Data is the coin of the realm, those who have the best information have the power and that's what that enables them to do."

"So it's the control of the data to conduct all sorts of big data operations. It's the control of the recommendation algorithm, which allows them to conduct influence operations. It's the control of the software, which allows them to then have access to millions of devices. So you put all those three things together, and again, come back to the starting point, which is, this is a tool that is ultimately within the control of the Chinese government and it, to me, screams out with national security concerns."