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Following a number of US states banning TikTok, the US Senate has just unanimously passed a bill banning the Chinese social media app on government devices.
The bill — called the No TikTok on Government Devices Act — was written by Republican Senator Josh Hawley.
“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,” said Senator Hawley in a release. “States across the US are banning TikTok on government devices. It’s time for Joe Biden and the Democrats to help do the same.”
Earlier this month, Chris Wray, Director of the FBI, gave a warning that TikTok could be used for “influencing operations”. Since then, Utah, Texas, and Maryland have passed similar bills.
While the main aim of the new bill is “To prohibit certain individuals from downloading or using TikTok on any device issued by the United States or a government corporation,” the bill is also quite forward-looking, covering “TikTok or any successor application or service developed or provided by ByteDance Limited or an entity owned by ByteDance Limited”.
ByteDance is the Chinese owner of the platform.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week that lawmakers were still working with the White House on the language employed in the bill.
TikTok has responded to the bill as you might expect.
“Once again, Sen. Hawley has moved forward with legislation to ban TikTok on government devices, a proposal which does nothing to advance US national security interests,” a spokesperson for TikTok said in a statement.
“We hope that rather than continuing down that road, he will urge the administration to move forward on an agreement that would actually address his concerns.”
This is the second such bill to pass the Senate. Though the first — also backed by Senator Hawley — was also passed by the House, it has yet to be signed into law.
Fellow Republican Senator Marco Rubio has authored a similar bill.
“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok,” Rubio said in a statement.
“This isn’t about creative videos — this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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