It’s got bipartisan support
TikTok might just be a time sink full of outrageous looping videos to the average person, but to the United States and Canadian governments, it could be a national security threat. Orders have come down prohibiting workers under both regimes from having the app installed on work devices in the wake of the revelation that the company spied on journalists. But the possibility of a national ban has been around since the Trump administration took a tougher stance against China. We’re now hearing that a powerful Senator is openly considering moving such a ban forward.
Democrat Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Fox News Sunday that he along with Republican Senator John Thune will introduce a bill this week setting up a framework to ban or prohibit foreign technology as necessary.
When asked if such technologies included TikTok, he replied that it was “one of the potentials.”
“You got 100 million Americans on TikTok 90 minutes a day,” Warner said. “They are taking data from Americans. They are not keeping it safe.”
The senior senator from Virginia also mentioned his concerns about the circulation of ideological content or propaganda on the app. The bill already has early bipartisan support.
Reuters reports the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted this week to authorize President Joe Biden to ban TikTok at his will.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has struggled to mount a case for itself, reportedly instituting a hiring freeze on an external monitoring counsel it hoped would appease American regulators. Both the company and the Chinese government came out this week against the prohibitions in the US and Canada.
“How unsure of itself can the world’s top superpower be to fear a young people’s favorite app like that?” said Ning Mao, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman (via China Daily).
At the very least, TikTok fans in the US won’t be lacking alternatives if the app does eventually get banned.
