Bipartisan legislation would ban TikTok in America

WASHINGTON (TND) — Bipartisan legislation introduced on Tuesday seeks to completely ban the popular social media platform TikTok due to its ties with China.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote in his release on the legislation that ByteDance, Tiktok's parent company, "is required by Chinese law to make the app’s data available to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)."

From the FBI Director to FCC Commissioners to cybersecurity experts, everyone has made clear the risk of TikTok being used to spy on Americans," Rubio says in the release.

The "Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act)" would block and prohibit any and all transactions "from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern," Rubio's release says.

The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok," Rubio says in his release. "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."We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China. There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good," Rubio adds.

Rubio says that similar "companion legislation" was also introduced in theU.S. House of Representatives byRepresentatives Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill. which makes the effort bipartisan.

TikTok is digital fentanyl that’s addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news," Gallagher says in Rubio's release. "It’s also an increasingly powerful media company that’s owned by ByteDance, which ultimately reports to the Chinese Communist Party – America’s foremost adversary."

Allowing TikTok to continue operating in America would be "like allowing the U.S.S.R. to buy up the New York Times, Washington Post, and major broadcast networks during the Cold War," Gallagher also says, urging America to ban TikTok and "any other CCP-controlled app before it’s too late."

Representative Krishnamoorthi says in Rubio's release that theANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act "is a strong step in protecting our nation from the nefarious digital surveillance and influence operations of totalitarian regimes."

At a time when the Chinese Communist Party and our other adversaries abroad are seeking any advantage they can find against the United States through espionage and mass surveillance, it is imperative that we do not allow hostile powers to potentially control social media networks that could be easily weaponized against us," saidKrishnamoorthi in the release.Recent revelations surrounding the depth of TikTok’s ties to the CCP highlight the urgency of protecting Americans from these risks before it’s too late,"Krishnamoorthi adds.

At least five states in America have already banned TikTok from being installed on government-owned phones and devices.

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