TikTok, a social media app famous for its brief viral videos, has been recommended to be banned by US politicians due to worries over national security.
The bipartisan measure is the most recent US action taken against the business, which is controlled by ByteDance, a major Chinese tech corporation.
The FBI director expressed alarm about China’s potential use of the programme to sway users’ opinions or commandeer their electronic devices last month. It is forbidden on devices used by the government in some US states.
The law, however, faces significant obstacles.
The action was criticised as a “politically-motivated prohibition that would do nothing to promote the national security of the United States” by TikTok, which has more than 100 million users in the US.
As part of the national security assessment that was started under previous President Donald Trump, the business stated that it was preparing strategies “that we are well advanced in implementing” to further safeguard the platform in the US.
The statement read, “We will continue to inform members of Congress on the plans.”
According to Caitlin Chin, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, DC-based think tank, the political attacks on TikTok are an indication of tense ties between the US and China.
Despite universal agreement that certain adjustments are required, she said she did not believe a nationwide ban on TikTok was likely to happen very soon, pointing out that politicians have moved slowly to amend US data protection and content moderation standards.
According to her, the majority of the worries regarding TikTok and China thus far are centred on the possibility of misuse rather than actual instances of it.
She noted that several other websites gather comparable data and claimed that just stopping a firm like TikTok from running wouldn’t fix the holes in privacy protection.
Australia and other nations have heard calls to outlaw TikTok, and Taiwan recently attempted to outlaw it on public devices. 2020 saw India ban it due to a conflict with the military.
Due to a Mr. Trump executive order that prohibited new downloads, TikTok was facing an effective ban in the US two years ago. However, judges rejected the order, and it was never put into action.
President Joe Biden finally withdrew it.
ByteDance was also ordered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is in charge of examining foreign ownership in the US, to sell TikTok in 2020.
The business is still in talks with that organisation.
One of the bill’s supporters, Republican Senator Marco Rubio, said at least one Democrat supported it. He contended that action is long overdue.
He said that his legislation will halt and outlaw any transactions from social media firms operating in or with ties to China, Russia, and “other foreign governments of concern.”
He said that the issue was with an app that was daily gathering data on tens of millions of American youngsters and adults, not with inventive films.
