Dec. 13 (UPI) — Sen. Marco Rubio introduced legislation on Tuesday that would ban TikTok from operating in the United States, as questions about the app’s connections to China continue to swirl.
The Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act would ban transactions from any social media company in China, Russia and several other foreign countries of concern.
“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok,” Rubio, R-Fla., said in a statement. “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.”
The bill alleges that Tiktok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, poses a security threat because of its data collection and vulnerability to the Chinese government.
While the bill does not name a Democratic co-sponsor in the Senate, Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., are introducing companion legislation in the House.
The bill would direct President Joe Biden to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to restrict access to the app.
Last month, Rubio and Gallagher published an opinion piece in the Washington Post announcing their plans.
“Unless TikTok and its algorithm can be separated from Beijing, the app’s use in the United States will continue to jeopardize our country’s safety and pave the way for a Chinese-influenced tech landscape here,” the two wrote.
