Vinod Khosla and Palantir's Jacob Helberg call on Senate to ban TikTok: It's 'a weapon of war'

Investor Vinod Khosla and Palantir advisor Jacob Helberg penned an open letter Thursday calling on senators to pass a bill that would force the divestiture of Bytedance-owned TikTok in the U.S.

Describing the social media platform as "a weapon of war," Helberg and Khosla compared the bill with decades-old restrictions on foreign ownership of U.S. media outlets.

"Would you let North Korea or Iran own a broadcast channel that 67% of teens spend almost two hours a day on?" the two wrote.

Some critics have compared the ban to a bill of attainder, given it singles out one company. In an interview with CNBC, Helberg said the comparison did not apply.

"We have a long tradition in American policymaking — sometimes we do target individual companies, when national security is at stake," Helberg said. The bill, which was overwhelmingly passed by the House in March, would demand that Bytedance either find a buyer for TikTok or else face a ban in the U.S.

Bytedance is not sitting on the sidelines, however. The company mobilized its user base to oppose the House bill, urging its millions of users to call their congressional representatives and voice their opposition. The in-app notifications prompted a flood of phone calls that overwhelmed some congressional offices.

Helberg said the effort was a prime example of the risk TikTok posed. "It was a live demo of precisely the kinds of concerns that we have been trying to highlight to elected officials," he told CNBC. "All of these concerns that before were theoretical were highlighted in full Technicolor for everyone to see."

Khosla is founder of Khosla Ventures and was co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Helberg is a senior advisor at Palantir, an artificial intelligence firm that does extensive