Members of the 118ths Congress recently voted on limiting the use of the social media platform Tiktok. This legislation comes to protect the American people from the Chinese government getting ahold of their data.
Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley wrote the Government Devices Act, which was voted upon by the US Senate, and bans government officials from carrying the Chinese government-owned social media platform.
The viral video format, recently announced they have over a billion users worldwide. The company’s association with the Chinese government has concerned citizens for years, and after discussions to resolve their issues have stalled, lawmakers drew up legislation.
The Wall Street Journal reported on these discussions saying, “The delay is raising political risks for TikTok and its owner, Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., as both Biden administration officials and newly-empowered congressional Republicans amp up their rhetoric on the company. ByteDance has spent around $9 million lobbying in Washington over the past two years, according to disclosure reports,” John McKinnon, Aruna Viswanatha, and Stu Woo wrote.
This move by Republicans has started the internal debates on whether Congress should ban the platform in its entirety. Marco Rubio clarified his position with the new information he has been given “From the FBI Director to FCC Commissioners to cybersecurity experts, everyone has made clear the risk of TikTok being used to spy on Americans.”
TikTok responded to the bill by saying, “Once again, Sen. Hawley has moved forward with legislation to ban TikTok on government devices, a proposal which does nothing to advance U.S. national security interests,” a spokesperson for TikTok said in a statement.
“We hope that rather than continuing down that road, he will urge the Administration to move forward on an agreement that would actually address his concerns,” the statement continued.
So now Rubio and other Senators are drafting their bill to take more steps towards safety from Tiktok. Rubio plans to implement a bill that demonetizes the platform called, “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act,” or the “ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act.”
Tiktoks’ defense against this is they claim it achieves nothing. A spokesman for the company says they should do their national security check of the app.
Spokesperson Hilary McQuaide said, “It’s troubling that rather than encouraging the Administration to conclude its national security review of TikTok, some members of Congress have decided to push for a politically-motivated ban that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States.”
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