New legislation that seeks to ban TikTok from operating in the United States has been introduced by some US lawmakers.
The new bill by Senator Marco Rubio, a top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, points to the latest move by US policymakers against the Chinese-owned TikTok.
There have been reports that the short video streaming platform cannot safeguard US user data from the Chinese government.
The recently proposed legislation will “block and prohibit all transactions” in the United States by social media platforms with at least one million monthly users that are based in, or under the “substantial influence” of, countries that are considered foreign adversaries, like China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.
Specifically, the bill names TikTok and ByteDance, its parent company, as social media platforms for the purposes of the legislation.
The legislation came at a time when many states led by Republican governors have introduced state-level restrictions on the use of TikTok on government-owned devices. At least seven states have introduced such restriction in the past 2 weeks, including Maryland, South Dakota and Utah.
TikTok has been discussing with the US government on a potential deal that may permit the company to tackle the national security concerns and to continue offering service to US users.
Previously, TikTok said it doesn’t share information with the government of China and that a US-based security team decides those who can access US user data from China.
Also, TikTok previously acknowledged that employees based in China could access user data.
In a statement, Rubio said: “The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok.
“There is no more time to waste on meaningless negotiations with a CCP-puppet company. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok for good.”
While reacting, TikTok’s spokesperson, Hilary McQuaide, released a statement which read: “It’s troubling that rather than encouraging the Administration to conclude its national security review of TikTok, some members of Congress have decided to push for a politically-motivated ban that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States.
“We will continue to brief members of Congress on the plans that have been developed under the oversight of our country’s top national security agencies—plans that we are well underway in implementing—to further secure our platform in the United States.”
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