As more and more states ban TikTok from state-owned devices, Republican Senator Marco Rubio from Florida, Republican Representative Mike Gallagher from Wisconsin, and Democrat Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi from Illinois have joined together to propose a national ban.
The bill was titled "Averting the National Threat of Internetsurveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act" The Act would go to the President's desk and he would have 30 days to sign it.
The Act defines the social media company of interest as those that are either located in, uses, or is influenced by a country of concern, while specifying that the companies of interest are TikTok and any of its subsidiaries.
The federal government has yet to act to protect American users from TikTok. The press release states that this isn't about creative videos but about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of Americans every day. The platform was referred to as "digital Fentanyl that's addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news" in a later statement.
Several U.S. states have experienced a wave of anti-TikTok regulations. Governor Noem was the first to issue a ban on state owned devices. Noem said that they wouldn't allow China to gain intel and influence in the state. Similar bans were enacted in Texas, South Carolina, and Maryland.
The Attorney General of Indiana called TikTok a "malicious and menacing threat" and announced two lawsuits against the social media platform.
This effort is bipartisan, unlike the state bans that have skewed Republican. While the idea of banning the platform was popularized by former President Donald Trump in 2020, the ANTI-SOCIALCCP Act confirms that Democrats are coming around to the idea as well.
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