The House Republican Conference is working on legislation that would ban the use of TikTok by the federal government and its employees.
“We’re working on something right now,” a Republican aide familiar with the matter told the Daily Caller. The bill will be introduced in the House Judiciary Committee, which is most likely to be led by Ohio Republican Congressman, Rep. Jim Jordan when Republicans take the majority next congress in January 2023.
This comes after South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem issued an executive order that banned the use of TikTok by all employees and contractors of the state government, using official devices. The South Dakota bill followed measures passed by the U.S. Military, the Departments of Transportation Security Administration, and other government agencies that have issued similar blocks on their employees after several allegations and concerns of the app sharing sensitive user data with the Chinese Government.
Just before Gov. Noem signed her executive order, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Republican Congressman Rep. Mike Gallagher had introduced similar bills on Nov. 10 to ban the use of TikTok across the United States speculating on the Chinese propaganda influence. “TikTok is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. This is not a state-owned enterprise, but in China, no company is truly private. Under the country’s 2017 National Intelligence Law, all citizens and businesses are required to assist in intelligence work, which includes sharing data,” Sen. Rubio said in a press release.
.@RepGallagher is right. The time has come to ban TikTok. pic.twitter.com/jOuBmEXlFM
— Senator Rubio Press (@SenRubioPress) November 28, 2022
Former President Donald Trump had set to introduce a similar executive order, and ban TikTok across the United States in 2020 when in office unless it was sold to a private company in the United States. Oracle and Microsoft had then placed separate bits to acquire ByteDance but the company declined their offers and sued the Trump administration and obtained a temporary injunction in November of 2020 just before the end of the Trump administration.
When Joe Biden took office, he rescinded President Trump’s actions on TikTok in June 2021. Biden asked the Secretary of Commerce, Gina Raimondo, to make the final decision on whether TikTok should be banned nationwide.
It remains to be seen what actions the House Republicans take to ban TikTok and whether the legislation makes it across the President’s desk. What do you make of the House Republicans’ proposed legislation to ban TikTok? Share your thoughts in our Facebook comments!
H/T: The Daily Caller