On this picture illustration, a TikTok App Brand is displayed on a cell phone.
Stanislav Kogiku | Sopa Photos | Lightrocket | Getty Photos
Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., stated Sunday he’s introducing a broad bipartisan invoice this week that may define an method to banning or prohibiting overseas know-how, like the favored video-sharing app TikTok.
TikTok is a short-form video platform that’s utilized by greater than 100 million People. Information privateness issues have been swirling across the app due to its mother or father firm ByteDance, which relies in China and privately held.
Warner stated he’s engaged on the invoice with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., including that he’s involved over the kind of content material that People are seeing on TikTok.
“They’re taking knowledge from People, not preserving it secure, however what worries me extra with TikTok is that this generally is a propaganda device,” he instructed “Fox Information Sunday.”
Warner’s laws comes after U.S. Home International Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to advance a invoice that may grant President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok. The invoice handed the Republican-controlled committee 24-16 alongside occasion strains, with unanimous GOP assist and no Democratic votes.
However even with the laws that got here earlier than the committee final week, lawmakers have an extended method to go earlier than any actual ban might be applied.
Assuming this invoice will get by the Republican-controlled Home, the Democratic-majority Senate must cross some model of it, which can be a problem primarily based on the opposition that has already been voiced by some Democrats. If it did cross the Senate, Biden would nonetheless have to resolve whether or not to veto it or signal it.
TikTok is not any stranger to challenges from U.S. officers, as former President Donald Trump declared his intention to ban the app by government motion in 2020. Congress banned TikTok from authorities gadgets as a part of a bipartisan spending invoice in December, a number of governors have eliminated the app from state laptop networks —together with at public universities — and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., renewed calls for a whole nationwide ban in January.
