New Bill Seeks To Ban TikTok From US Devices

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(ConservativeHub.com) – A new bill was brought forth in Congress by Republican Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.) and Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.). The new proposal would completely ban TikTok from being downloaded on any US device.

The proposal is the result of Buck, Hawley, and several other lawmakers stating that the Chinese-based app could potentially become a security concern. According to the new proposal, the President would be stopping any possible transactions with ByteDance, which is TikTok’s parent company. The International Emergency Economic Powers Act would also ensure that there would be penalties for all those who did not abide by the sanctions.

As part of the act, the director of national security would also be made to file a document discussing the possible risks to national security that TikTok brings forth because of the access to personal data that users have submitted.

Brooke Oberwetter, a TikTok spokesperson, said in a recent statement that the platform had been using “a piecemeal approach” in dealing with data security and privacy issues as well as any harms that exist online, according to The Hill. Oberwetter also said that it would be better for Hawley to focus her efforts on actually targeting the risks instead of simply banning one platform and believing it would instantly make a difference.

A proposal to ban TikTok on government devices was previously added to the $1.7 trillion federal funding bill which passed at the end of the previous Congress, The Hill reported. Now, Hawley was looking for a way to extend the prohibition to nongovernmental devices that have TikTok on them. This is not the first TikTok bill to have come to the floor. Last year another effort against the platform was made by Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

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