Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) reintroduced a bill Thursday (April 15) to ban the use of TikTok, the overseas version of the Chinese company-owned social media software Jitterbug, on federal government equipment, citing potential national security risks. the Biden administration is still considering and evaluating whether to move forward with the previous Trump administration’s The ban against TikTok.
The bill, known as the No TikTok on Government Devices Act, would ban all federal employees from using TikTok on public agency devices, and was introduced in 2020 and passed unanimously by the Senate last August. But the bill was sent to the House of Representatives and delayed in receiving a vote in the chamber.
“TikTok is a Chinese Communist Trojan horse that should have no place on any government device, or any American device,” said Senator Hawley from Missouri in a statement, “My bill is a straightforward and clear plan to protect the U.S. government’s data from fall into the hands of a hostile foreign power.”
“TikTok has repeatedly proven itself to be a malicious actor, but with Joe Biden and the tech giant refusing to seriously address the threat of Chinese spies, it’s time for Congress to act,” Hawley continued in the statement.
The bill is currently cosponsored by three Republican senators, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL).
The House version of the same bill was introduced by Republican U.S. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) of Colorado. The bill has been cosponsored by eight Republicans in the House.
In a separate written statement, Buck said, “This bill would be in the best interest of our national security.”
“China-owned apps are required to report their user data to the Chinese Communist Party, which is why we cannot trust TikTok with the sensitive data that exists on U.S. government devices,” Barker said, adding, “It is long past time that we acknowledge the poses a serious cybersecurity threat and ban the use of the Chinese app within the federal government.”
While the U.S. federal government has not currently taken explicit steps to ban the use of TikTok on unit devices, the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, as well as the Transportation Security Administration, have ordered employees to ban TikTok on government devices in the last year.
Former Republican President Donald Trump took strict measures against multiple Chinese apps and several Chinese tech companies while in office. Trump had requested that TikTok, owned by Chinese company Bytedance, be spun off into a new company partially owned by Oracle and Walmart, but the deal never received final approval from the Trump administration and is still under separate approval.
White House press secretary Sachs said at a White House press conference in February that the administration needs more time to make a decision and assess potential threats to U.S. data, including TikTok, and “we will address those threats in a decisive and effective way.”
The U.S. Court of Appeals put the case in question on hold back in February and directed the government to file a status report within 60 days.
In status reports to the federal Third Circuit Court of Appeals and the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week, Justice Department lawyers reportedly wrote that “the incoming and outgoing leadership at the Department of Commerce, as well as other relevant agencies, need more time to think about possible options.”
This week, the White House has requested an additional 60 days to assess the situation.
TikTok has repeatedly rebutted concerns about its data security from various parties, including Congress, and said they are taking steps to strengthen data privacy and security. tikTok had already suspended talks to sell its stake in the company to Oracle and Walmart earlier this year after the Biden administration said it wanted to revisit the ban.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said last week that White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan is leading a team to evaluate and make a decision on the disposition of several Chinese technology companies, including TikTok. Raimondo did not say whether the Biden administration would continue the Trump administration’s decision to mandate that ByteTok Inc. must sell its TikTok business.
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