In a move that comes after several state legislators pushed to prohibit TikTok in their respective states, a group of bipartisan lawmakers introduced on Tuesday a bill that would prohibit the use of Chinese-based owner Byte Dance’s social media platform in the United States.
TikTok has become quite popular among younger Americans and has more than 100 million users in the country.
Referred to as the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act, the Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship, and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act, aims to protect American citizens against using social media companies originating in Russia or China by blocking and prohibiting all transactions from those ventures.
Republican Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) introduced the legislation citing the latest concerns expressed by the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with regard to the use of the social media platforms to spy on Americans.
Sen Rubio noted in his statement that this legislation would be a single meaningful action and step toward protecting US users from the threat of TikTok which is collecting data on tens of millions of Americans every day hiding behind creative videos.
The rocky relationship between TikTok and Washington has turned even rockier over the past year following the failed attempt by former President Trump’s administration in 2020 to implement a ban on the social media platform.
Citing their concerns with security on TikTok, South Dakota, Maryland, Texas, Utah, and several other GOP-led states has already implemented measures to prohibit the social media platform within their state’s government branches and on state government-issued devices.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox stressed in a statement on Monday that Beijing’s access to data collected by TikTok presents a threat to the US cybersecurity the authorities have to protect citizens against, making sure they can trust the states’ security systems.
Responding to the latest legislative action, TikTok spokesperson Jamal Brown expressed the company’s disappointment with the number of states that are using unfounded, politically charged falsehoods about their company to enact policies against it.
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