On Wednesday evening, the Senate of the United States voted to adopt a bill that would prevent the Chinese social media app TikTok from being used on government computers in the United States.
The No TikTok on Government Devices Act, introduced by Republican Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, was passed with unanimous assent. ByteDance Limited and its affiliates would be outlawed under the proposed laws, as would any services or updates to the Chinese social media app they produce or deliver.
As long as the responsible agency “develops and documents risk mitigation procedures for such usage,” the statute makes an exception for “law enforcement efforts, national security interests and activities, and security researchers.”
According to Breitbart News, the Trump administration attempted to prohibit the Chinese social media app TikTok in 2020, which led to the app’s parent business selling the service to a company in the United States.
TikTok is a covert propaganda platform for the Chinese Communist Party. “Until it is forced to cut links with China fully, it has no place on government equipment,” said Hawley in a statement after the law passed. In light of security concerns, many American states have banned TikTok from all state-owned computers and mobile devices. Now is the moment for Democrats and Vice President Joe Biden to pitch in.
Similar legislation was presented in the House by Republican Ken Buck (R-CO) last year, but it has yet to receive approval from the House Oversight Committee.
A representative for TikTok issued a comment after the bill was passed, saying, “Once again, Sen. Hawley has gone forward with legislation to prohibit TikTok on government devices, a plan which does nothing to serve U.S. national security objectives.” Instead of going down that path, we’re crossing our fingers that he’ll encourage the Administration to move forward on a deal that will meet his concerns.
According to CNN, the official was alluding to negotiations between the Chinese social media app and the United States government to ensure that TikTok may continue to serve users in the United States. According to reports, the two have been holding secret negotiations for years.
Concerns that a Chinese social networking app may be used to spy on Americans have led to increased calls for action against the app from both Democratic and Republican public leaders in recent months.
On Tuesday, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representatives Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) presented a bill in the Senate and House, respectively, to restrict the use of the app TikTok in the United States due to national security concerns.
In a statement announcing the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act, Rubio said, “The federal government has yet to take a single serious measure to safeguard American users from the menace of TikTok.” What we’re talking about here isn’t innovative video production; it’s an app that routinely collects information on millions of people across the United States.
Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) of Iowa stated on Tuesday that the Chinese social media app TikTok would be immediately banned on state government devices and that no public agency would be permitted to subscribe to or create an account on the site, citing security concerns. Republican governors, including South Dakota’s Kristi Noem, South Carolina’s Henry McMaster, Texas’s Greg Abbott, and Maryland’s Larry Hogan, have issued mandates that are quite similar to Reynolds’ (R).
Furthermore, a Rasmussen Reports study published just last week indicated that most voters think the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) may use the app to “gather important national security information from U.S. government personnel.” The majority of Americans also agree that TikTok should be illegal in the United States.