Sen. Marco Rubio has introduced legislation that would ban the popular social networking app TikTok from operating in the U.S. on grounds that it presents a threat to national security.
According to Rubio, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is required by Chinese law to make the app’s data available to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The lengthy name given to the bill is Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by Chinese Communist Party Act (Anti-Social CCP Act). The bill would prohibit any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela from acquiring sensitive data from Americans or “to use social media to spread their influence campaigns, propaganda, and censorship.”
“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,” Rubio said in introducing the legislation, “ We know it’s used to manipulate feeds and influence elections. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China.”
If passed and signed into law, the President would have 30 days to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to implement the Act.
U.S. Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) have introduced twin legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The proposed legislation remains pending.
