Republican Senator Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced a bipartisan bill to ban popular social networking app TikTok, increasing pressure on its Chinese owner, ByteDance, amid fears in the United States that the app will be used to spy on US citizens and censor content.
The legislation would block all transactions by any social media company from China and Russia, or under their influence, Rubio’s office said in a press release, adding that a companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives has been introduced by lawmakers. Mike Gallagher, Republican, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democrat.
“It is troubling that, instead of encouraging the administration to complete its national security review of TikTok, some members of Congress have decided to push for a politically motivated ban, which will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States,” a spokesperson said. from TikTok in a statement.
The company said it will continue to inform members of Congress of its plans, which are “well underway” to “make our platform even more secure in the United States.”
The bill comes after TikTok’s scrutiny has increased in Washington in recent weeks following the previous administration’s failed attempt to ban the video-sharing app.
At a hearing last month, FBI Director Chris Wray said TikTok’s US operations raise national security concerns, signaling a risk that the Chinese government could use it to influence users or control their devices.
On Monday (12), Alabama and Utah joined other US states banning the use of TikTok on devices and computer networks of state governments, due to national security concerns.
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump tried to stop new users from downloading TikTok and ban other transactions that would effectively block use of the app in the US, but he lost a series of court battles over the measure.
The United States government’s Committee on Foreign Investment (CFIUS), a powerful national security body, ordered ByteDance in 2020 to cancel TikTok over fears that US user data would be passed on to China’s communist government.
CFIUS and TikTok have been in talks for months with the aim of reaching a national security agreement to protect the data of the app’s more than 100 million users.
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