U.S. Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Ban TikTok Nationwide

As extra and extra states throughout the nation pile on to ban TikTok from state-owned units, Republican Senator Marco Rubio from Florida together with Democrat Representatives Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin and Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois have taken the transfer to the following degree by proposing a nationwide ban of the platform.

The bill, titled “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act” or, extra succinctly, the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act. If handed, the Act would then go to the President’s desk and if signed, would “block and prohibit all transactions in all property and interests in property of a social media company,” 30 days after passage.

The ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act defines the social media firm of curiosity as these which can be both headquartered in, makes use of algorithms managed by, or is influenced by a “country of concern,” whereas later specifying that the businesses of curiosity are TikTokay dad or mum firm ByteDance and any of its subsidiaries.

“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok. 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,” Senator Rubio said in a press launch on his website. Representative Gallagher, in the meantime, referred to the platform as “digital fentanyl that’s addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news” in a subsequent assertion.

A rising wave of anti-TikTok rules has crashed on a number of U.S. states within the earlier weeks. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem started the cost late final month by being the primary to problem a TikTok ban on state-owned units. “We will play no part in allowing China to continue to gain intel and influence in our state,” Noem said on Twitter. Texas, South Carolina, and Maryland all enacted related bans quickly after.

Last week, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita known as TikTok a “malicious and menacing threat” whereas asserting two lawsuits filed in opposition to the social media platform that criticize how the app entices underage customers and the way the app collects delicate consumer information.

What’s fascinating about this effort from Rubio, Gallagher, and Krishnamoorthi is that it’s bipartisan, whereas the aforementioned state bans have all skewed Republican. While the concept of banning the platform was popularized by former President Donald Trump in 2020, the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act confirms that Democrats are coming round to the thought too.