3 US lawmakers draft bill calling for ban on TikTok due to connection to China

Three United States lawmakers have introduced legislation that would ban the social media platform TikTok from operating in the U.S. due to its parent company’s connection to China.

News 12 Staff

Dec 14, 2022, 1:28 AM

Updated 701 days ago

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Three United States lawmakers have introduced legislation that would ban the social media platform TikTok from operating in the U.S. due to its parent company’s connection to China.
Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate. Republican Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher and Democrat Illinois Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi have introduced a similar bill in the House of Representatives.
The congressmen say they are concerned about TikTok’s parent company ByteDance and its affiliation with China.
“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. We know it answers to the People’s Republic of China,” Rubio said in a statement.
“Allowing the app to continue to operate in the U.S. would be like allowing the U.S.S.R. to buy up the New York Times, Washington Post and major broadcast networks during the Cold War,” Gallagher also stated.
Some have doubted TikTok can safeguard Americans’ data from the Chinese government.