Congress Wants To Ban TikTok

US lawmakers have proposed a ban on TikTok, the social media app known for its short viral videos, citing concerns about national security. The bipartisan bill is the latest move in the US against the company, which is owned by Chinese technolgy giant ByteDance. Republican Senator Marco Rubio has introduced the legislation that will ban TikTok from operating within the US. 

Rubio’s Senate bill references the ‘‘Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act’’. 

Known in Washington as the ‘‘Anti-Social CCP Act’’ Rubio's bill has bipartisan support in the House, with both Democrat and Republican representatives in support. “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. We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections." Rubio said in a statement. 

At a time of heightened tension between the US and China over issues including accusations of espionage and mass surveillance, US legislators are unhappy to allow hostile powers to potentially control social media networks that become weaponized.

"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 said

FBI Director Chris Wray has raised national security concerns about TikTok, warning that control of the popular video sharing app is in the hands of a Chinese government “that doesn’t share our values.” Wray said the FBI was concerned that the Chinese had the ability to control the app’s recommendation algorithm, “which allows them to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations.” He also asserted that China could use the app to collect data on its users that could be used for traditional espionage operations.

TikTok says that the lawmakers' concerns are not rooted in fact. The Chinese government exercises influence over the platform “in no way, shape or form,” TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in September 14.

TikTok is currently in negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States over these national security concerns. TikTok's video sharing platform, which has more than 100 million users in the US, has called the measure a "politically-motivated ban that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States".

Sen. Marco Rubio:    DefenseOne:    BBC:    APNews:     Reuters:   NBC: 

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