On this photograph illustration, a TikTok App Emblem 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 can define an method to banning or prohibiting international 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. Knowledge privateness issues have been swirling across the app due to its mum or dad firm ByteDance, which is predicated 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 protecting it protected, however what worries me extra with TikTok is that this generally is a propaganda instrument,” he instructed “Fox Information Sunday.”
Warner’s laws comes after U.S. Home Overseas 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 social gathering traces, with unanimous GOP help and no Democratic votes.
However even with the laws that got here earlier than the committee final week, lawmakers have a protracted approach to go earlier than any actual ban may very well be carried out.
Assuming this invoice will get by way of the Republican-controlled Home, the Democratic-majority Senate must cross some model of it, which might 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 isn’t any stranger to challenges from U.S. officers, as former President Donald Trump declared his intention to ban the app by govt motion in 2020. Congress banned TikTok from authorities units as a part of a bipartisan spending invoice in December, a number of governors have eliminated the app from state pc networks —together with at public universities — and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., renewed calls for an entire nationwide ban in January.