Amid ongoing problems with TikTok user data, as well as crackdowns on college campuses across the US, another bill calls for a complete ban on the ByteDance-owned platform.
Senator Josh Hawley, one of several lawmakers who questioned Live Nation CFO Joe
Berchtold yesterday, recently announced plans to pass a law banning TikTok in the States. Actively criticizing the alleged security flaws of the video sharing platform and the threat to user security, the legislator in 2020 introduced a “Law banning TikTok on government devices.”
As the name suggests, this measure, which was passed last year after unanimous passage in the Senate, is designed to ban the use of TikTok on government devices. Meanwhile, the House of Representatives itself banned TikTok at the end of 2022, and north of 20 governors have banned the use of the controversial service on government devices.
In addition to these bans, the FBI and the US Federal Communications Commission have expressed far-reaching concerns about TikTok, which is already completely banned in Jordan and India. And since many consider the platform to be an immediate threat to the security of government officials and national security, logic suggests that TikTok also poses an immediate security threat to millions and millions of (usually young) users.
Consequently, Senator Hawley is now the latest lawmaker calling for a complete ban on TikTok in the US, announcing the introduction of relevant legislation on social media.
“[email protected]_us is a Chinese backdoor into the lives of Americans. This threatens the privacy of our children, as well as their mental health. Last month, Congress banned its use on all government devices. Now I will introduce a law banning it across the country,” the senator wrote.
At the time of writing this article, it seemed that the supposedly simple bill had not been published in full. Needless to say, the legislative fate of this measure — and the fate of similar bills — remains to be seen.
Of course, it was only in December that the bipartisan ANTI-SOCIAL CPC Law, which banned the activities of any social platform in the United States founded, organized in accordance with the laws or owned by a “country of concern”, debuted in the House and Senate. The bill specifically mentions TikTok as one such platform.
Earlier this month, it became known that the Chinese government acquired the shares of the owner of TikTok ByteDance after the Beijing “state fund” quietly bought part of the local ByteDance division in August last year and took a seat on its board of directors. In addition, a recent report says that TikTok employees have access to a “heating button” that allows them to manage views and stimulate viral trends in videos at their discretion.
