US Parliament Introduces Bill to Ban TikTok from Operation

The US parliament has submitted a bill to prohibit TikTok from operating in the United States (photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The drama of being afraid of being spied on by TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, is still unfinished in the United States. Even this time, the US government not only limited access to TikTok, but also created new laws.

Together with US Senator Marco Rubio, US House of Representatives Mike Gallagher introduced a bipartisan bill to ban TikTok from operating in the United States.

According to them, ByteDance is required by Chinese law to make its app data available to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). From the Director of the FBI FCC Commissioner to cybersecurity experts, have made clear the risks of using TikTok to spy on Americans.

Read more here: https://t.co/UUN7S0VHIK

— Rep. Gallagher Press Office (@RepGallagher) December 13, 2022

The US government states that the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Censorship and Oppressive Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act) will protect Americans by blocking and banning all transactions from any social media company. even in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and some of the other foreign countries of concern.

Representatives Gallagher and Senator Rubio announced the bill in a Washington Post op-ed last month, writing that "Congress needs to act against the TikTok threat before it's too late."

“The federal government has not taken any meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok. This isn't about creative videos, this is about apps that collect data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day," Senator Rubio said in a release shared on Twitter.

US senators believe the data is being used to manipulate the bait and influence elections. They also don't want to negotiate with ByteDance anymore.

“There is no more time to be wasted on meaningless negotiations with the CCP puppet companies. It is time to ban Beijing-controlled TikTok once and for all,” he added.

Representatives for Gallagher also said that allowing TikTok to continue operating in the US would be like allowing the Soviet Union to buy the New York Times, Washington Post and major broadcast networks during the Cold War.

"No country with even a fleeting interest in its own security will allow this to happen, therefore the time has come to ban TikTok and other apps controlled by the CCP before it is too late," he said.