Momentum builds in Congress to crack down on TikTok
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Loading... - Penelope Reynolds
- 24 Feb 2023
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Lawmakers from both parties have increased their scrutiny of the app, with some backing a national ban to counter China as others probe its effects on young people.
There’s no consensus yet, but bipartisan momentum is building for Congress to do something, anything, to crack down on TikTok.
Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have proposed bills that would ban the Chinese-owned social media behemoth in the United States.
Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., teamed up on a letter demanding that the Biden administration impose a wall between TikTok’s U.S. operations and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.
And in a rare one-on-one meeting this week on Capitol Hill, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said he urged TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew “to consider his platform’s harm to a generation of Americans.”
"TikTok is digital fentanyl," said Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., the chairman of the new House select committee on China.
Late last year, Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law a sprawling spending package that included legislation that bans TikTok on millions of federal government devices.
Now lawmakers want to go further. And they're sounding the alarm that the Chinese Communist Party is using TikTok as an entry point to spy on its tens of millions of American users. The company has also come under fire as Congress takes a harder look at the harm caused by social media — especially to teenagers who have flocked to the viral video app. Read More…
