Republicans revive TikTok security concerns at state, federal level | 24CA News
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida on Tuesday introduced bipartisan laws to ban China’s well-liked social media app TikTok, ratcheting up stress on proprietor ByteDance Ltd. amid U.S. fears the app could possibly be used to spy on or censure Americans.
The laws would block all transactions from any social media firm in or below the affect of China and Russia, Rubio’s workplace mentioned in a news launch.
A companion invoice within the U.S. House of Representatives is sponsored by Republican Congress member Mike Gallagher and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi.
ByteDance didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
TikTok is addicting Americans, amassing troves of their knowledge, and censoring their news. It’s additionally owned by ByteDance, which is managed by the CCP.<br><br>Rep. Gallagher, <a href=”https://twitter.com/SenRubioPress?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@SenRubioPress</a>, and <a href=”https://twitter.com/CongressmanRaja?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@CongressmanRaja</a> launched bipartisan laws to to ban the app earlier than it is too late. <a href=”https://t.co/y7gqrIbXCA”>pic.twitter.com/y7gqrIbXCA</a>
—@RepGallagher
Equating the app, which has an estimated one billion month-to-month common customers, to “digital fentanyl,” Gallagher mentioned in a press release that “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.”
Former president Donald Trump in 2020 tried to dam new U.S customers from downloading WeChat and TikTok, which might have successfully blocked using these apps within the United States, however misplaced a collection of courtroom battles.
The U.S. authorities’s Committee on Foreign Investment within the United States (CFIUS), a robust nationwide safety physique, in 2020 ordered ByteDance to divest TikTok due to fears that U.S. person knowledge could possibly be handed on to China’s communist authorities.
In June 2021, President Joe Biden withdrew Trump’s govt orders that sought to ban the downloads and directed the Commerce Department to conduct a evaluate of safety issues posed by the apps.
‘Politically charged falsehoods’: TikTok
House Republican members final month pressed TikTok over issues the corporate could have misled Congress about how a lot person knowledge it shares with China.
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the highest Republican on the House’s power and commerce committee, and James Comer, prime Republican on the chamber’s oversight committee, wrote to TikTok to say data supplied in a employees briefing seemed to be inaccurate.
“Some of the information TikTok provided during the staff briefing appears to be untrue or misleading, including that TikTok does not track U.S. user locations,” the Republican lawmakers mentioned in a letter to TikTok chief govt Shou Zi Chew.
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Republicans will take management of the House in January, and the letter could possibly be an indication of powerful scrutiny they plan to use to Chinese corporations.
Several states, most Republican-led, have prohibited using TikTok on state authorities gadgets and laptop networks on account of nationwide safety issues in current weeks, together with Alabama and Utah on Monday.
“Disturbingly, TikTok harvests vast amounts of data, much of which has no legitimate connection to the app’s supposed purpose of video sharing. Use of TikTok involving state IT infrastructure thus creates an unacceptable vulnerability to Chinese infiltration operations,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey mentioned in a press release.
Other U.S. states which have banned TikTok on state gadgets embody Texas, Maryland and South Dakota.
Indiana has additionally sued the app, alleging that it’s deceiving customers about China’s entry to their knowledge and is exposing kids to mature content material.
“We’re disappointed that so many states are jumping on the bandwagon to enact policies based on unfounded, politically charged falsehoods about TikTok,” a TikTok spokesperson mentioned in a press release on Monday.
FBI director involved about potential ‘affect operations’
Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr, a Republican, mentioned in a tweet on Monday that not less than 9 states have taken motion on TikTok “based on the serious security threats it presents.”
FBI director Chris Wray final month in congressional testimony flagged the danger that the Chinese authorities might harness the video-sharing app to affect customers or management their gadgets.
The dangers, Wray mentioned, might embody “the possibility that the Chinese government could use [TikTok] to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations.”
Beijing might additionally use the app to “control software on millions of devices,” giving it the chance to “technically compromise” these gadgets, he mentioned.
TikTok govt Vanessa Pappas informed Congress in September that TikTok was making “progress toward a final agreement with the U.S. government to further safeguard U.S user data and fully address U.S. national security interests.”
