Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat who cosponsored a companion bill in the House, called the legislation “a strong step” to protect Americans from “the infamous digital surveillance and influence operations of totalitarian regimes.”
“At a time when the Chinese Communist Party and our other adversaries abroad seek any advantage they can find against the United States through espionage and mass surveillance, it is imperative that we not allow hostile powers to potentially control social media that could be easily armed against us,” Krishnamoorthi said in a statement.
The legislation comes months after the social media company confirmed an explosive report from BuzzFeed News that engineers in Beijing had accessed data on American TikTok users as recently as this year. Over the years, US lawmakers and lawmakers have scrutinized TikTok’s privacy and data-sharing practices out of concerns that its parent company is controlled by the Chinese government.
In 2019, the US Committee on Foreign Investment began investigating the national security implications of the platform and has been negotiating with the company to ensure that certain “protected” data can no longer leave the country and enter China. But BuzzFeed News research published in June showed that public data, including people’s profiles, comments and what they post, will not be included, which could provide ByteDance employees with massive insights into the lives of American users and their media consumption habits.
In a statement provided to BuzzFeed News, TikTok spokeswoman Brooke Oberwetter said it was “concerning” that members of Congress were “pushing for a politically motivated ban” while the government’s review of the company is ongoing. and said the legislation would “do nothing”. “to promote national security.
“TikTok is loved by millions of Americans who use the platform to learn, grow their businesses and connect with creative content that brings them joy,” Oberwetter said. “We will continue to inform members of Congress of plans that have been developed under the watchful eye of our nation’s leading national security agencies, plans that we are well advanced in implementing, to further secure our platform in the United States.”
But Rubio argued that negotiations between the company and the US government were a waste of time, describing TikTok as a “puppet” of the Chinese Communist Party.
“We know that it is used to manipulate sources and influence elections,” the Florida senator said in a statement. “We know it answers to the PRC… It’s time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok forever.”