Legislators and advocates are looking to regulate social media companies in the new year after Congress banned TikTok from government devices.
The Chinese company ByteDance owns the video-sharing app TikTok, which has more than one billion users a month. Since companies based in China may be required by law to hand over user information, lawmakers and the FBI have voiced concerns about the ownership structure of TikTok.
TikTok has assured the public that its U.S. user data is not based in China.
On NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Rep. Mike Gallagher said that he thinks the ban on the app should be expanded nationwide.
He said that it was highly addictive. There is troubling data about the impact of constant social media use on young men and women.
Regulators should push for more transparency about how social media platforms work as a first step since they operate using the same software, according to Facebook's whistle blower.
Most people don't know how far behind the US is in regulating social media.
She told NBC's "Meet the Press" that seatbelt laws are still not in place.
Congress failed to pass many of the most aggressive bills targeting tech in 2022, including antitrust legislation that would require app stores developed by Apple and Google to give developers more payment options, and a measure to protect kids online. There is only a patchwork of state laws determining how consumer data is protected despite the fact that Congress made more headway this year than in the past.
Many of the bills have bipartisan support and have made their way to the Senate floor. She said that bills with bipartisan support can fall apart within a day.
When Americans decide they have had enough, things will change with social media companies, according to the senator.
She said that they were lagging behind on NBC's "Meet the Press". Let it be our resolution that we finally pass one of these bills.
Lauren Feiner worked for CNBC.
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