The US Senate on Wednesday handed a invoice that may ban the TikTok app on federal authorities units.
The invoice, launched final yr by Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican of Missouri, was handed by unanimous consent. It should cross the Home and be signed by President Joe Biden earlier than it turns into legislation.
Many lawmakers have considerations that the social video app and mother or father firm ByteDance, based mostly in China, pose a nationwide safety risk as a result of the app collects massive quantities of knowledge on its customers, together with location information, and will share it with the Chinese language authorities. TikTok has repeatedly denied that declare.
“As soon as once more, Sen. Hawley has moved ahead with laws to ban TikTok on authorities units, a proposal which does nothing to advance U.S. nationwide safety pursuits. We hope that relatively than persevering with down that highway, he’ll urge the Administration to maneuver ahead on an settlement that may truly handle his considerations,” a TikTok spokesperson stated in a press release emailed to CNET.
The invoice handed the Senate the day after a separate invoice that may bar TikTok within the US totally was launched by lawmakers in each the Home and the Senate. A rising variety of states have already taken motion in opposition to TikTok, barring the app on authorities units on the state degree.
In November, FBI Director Christopher Wray stated that TikTok may very well be used to “management information assortment on hundreds of thousands of customers, or management the advice algorithm, which may very well be used for affect operations in the event that they so select, or to manage software program on hundreds of thousands of units.”
On the time, a TikTok spokesperson stated the corporate was “assured that we’re on a path to completely fulfill all affordable US nationwide safety considerations.”
