Rep. Raja Krishnamooti of the Illinois Democratic Party has co-sponsored a related bill in the House that calls for a “strong digital surveillance and influence campaign” to protect Americans from “a totalitarian regime’s heinous digital surveillance and influence operations.” It is a step,” he said.
“At a time when the Chinese Communist Party and other adversaries overseas seek the advantages they can find against the United States through espionage and mass surveillance, hostile forces are potentially controlling social media networks. It is imperative that we do not allow them to be easily weaponized against us,” Krishnamooti said in a statement.
The law comes months after social media companies. Confirmed Explosive report by BuzzFeed News held by Beijing engineer Accessed data Percentage of American TikTok users this year. Concerns that TikTok’s parent company is controlled by the Chinese government have scrutinized TikTok’s data sharing and privacy practices for years by US policymakers and lawmakers.
In 2019, the U.S. Foreign Investment Commission launched an investigation into the platform’s national security implications and has been negotiating with the company to prevent certain “protected” data from flowing out of the country and into China. However, a BuzzFeed News study was published in June. public dataIncluding people’s profiles, comments and posts.
In a statement provided to BuzzFeed News, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Overwetter said members of Congress would “advance a politically motivated ban” while the government’s review of the company was ongoing. He said the matter was “troublesome” and that the law “does nothing”.
“TikTok is loved by millions of Americans who use the platform to learn, grow their business, and connect with creative content that brings joy,” said Oberwetter. “We are seeking Congressional approval of a plan developed under the oversight of our top national security agency to further secure our platform in the United States, which is on track to be implemented. I will continue to explain to the members.”
Rubio, however, described TikTok as a “puppet” of the Chinese Communist Party, arguing that negotiations between the company and the U.S. government were a waste of time.
In a statement, the Florida senator said, “We know the feed is being manipulated and used to influence elections. We know it’s the answer to the People’s Republic of China.” …it’s time to completely ban Beijing-controlled TikTok.”
