Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has proposed a bipartisan bill that would prohibit TikTok from operating in the U.S., citing the social media platform’s threat to national security.
Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., unveiled companion legislation in the lower chamber, backing Rubio’s measure – Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act or ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act.
“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok. This isn’t about creative videos — this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day,” said Rubio.
The lawmaker also cited how TikTok can influence elections and the platform’s ties to China.
In November, FBI Director Christopher Wray told a House panel about the bureau’s national security concerns over TikTok, saying the Chinese government could potentially exploit the video app to control data collection on millions of users.
Brendan Carr, a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, called on the Council on Foreign Investment in the United States to initiate action to ban TikTok due to concerns over the security of data of U.S. users.
The Department of the Treasury’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. is conducting a review of TikTok over national security issues as the app owned by Chinese company ByteDance negotiates to continue its operations in the U.S.
In September, a Senate panel held a hearing over the video platform’s access to U.S. user data and links to the Chinese government.
