On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill that would ban the use of TikTok on government devices amid growing concerns about the Chinese-based social media app’s threat to national security.
The No TikTok on Government Devices Act was introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). The bill still needs to be passed in the House and signed by President Biden to become law.
“TikTok is a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party. It’s a major security risk to the United States, and until it is forced to sever ties with China completely, it has no place on government devices,” Hawley said in a statement on Thursday. “States across the U.S. are banning TikTok on government devices. It’s time for Joe Biden and the Democrats to help do the same.”
Now is the time to act quickly and send this bill to the President’s desk
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) December 15, 2022
Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers that he is “extremely concerned” about TikTok’s operations in the United States.
“We do have national security concerns, obviously from the FBI’s end, about TikTok,” Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee in a hearing. “They include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users, or control the recommendation algorithm which could be used for influence operations if they so choose, or to control software on millions of devices.”
Despite TikTok dubiously claiming it doesn’t store U.S. user data in China, the Chinese government has the ability to force companies to hand over internal information.
Wray explained that alone was “plenty of reason by itself to be extremely concerned.”
