TikTok users in the United States of America are on high alert again after bills were introduced in the Senate to ban the operation of the application in the country, and TikTok CEO Shaw Zi Chew appeared before Congress at a March hearing about the application.
Over the past few years, various members of the US government have made it clear that they do not want TikTok to operate on the territory of the United States of America.
This is largely due to the fact that it belongs to the Chinese company ByteDance, which, according to members of the Senate, can share information with the Chinese government and spy on its users.
Here’s everything we know about the latest steps taken by the US government to crack down on the app, as well as any steps taken to ban TikTok altogether.
A federal bill has been introduced to ban TikTok in the United States
On December 13, 2022, two U.S. senators introduced a bill completely banning the platform from operating in the United States due to its ties with Beijing.
Previously titled “The Law on Preventing the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Strict Censorship, Influence and Algorithmic Training of the Communist Party of China”, the law prohibits TikTok, as well as other social networks associated with China, Russia and a number of other countries. “Foreign countries of concern.
On January 25, 2023, Senator Josh Hawley renewed the campaign by introducing his own bill banning TikTok in the United States. It is unknown when, if at all, the Senate will vote for this act.
https://twitter.com/Remarks/status/1618022615599419392
In December, the US Congress officially banned TikTok on all federal government devices.
Senator calls for TikTok to be removed from App Stores
On February 2, 2023, U.S. Senator Michael Bennett wrote a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook expressing concern about TikTok being in their respective app stores.
In the letter, Bennett calls on both CEOs to completely remove TikTok so that users cannot download the app at all.
The House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a law banning TikTok
On March 1, 2023, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a law that would give the Biden administration the ability to ban transactions with TikTok nationwide.
This would make it impossible to download and connect to the application servers, effectively completely banning the application inside the US.
The law must pass a vote in the House of Representatives and the Senate before it gets to President Biden’s desk for a final decision.
TikTok CEO Shaw Zee Chu to appear before Congress
On March 23, TikTok CEO Shaw Zi Chew testified before Congress at a hearing where he was questioned, in particular, about the app’s relationship with China and how children are protected on the platform.
In prepared testimony , he stated: “Let me state unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country.”
Chew also described the Project Texas initiative, saying that over the past two years they have “created what amounts to a firewall that isolates the protected data of US users from unauthorized access from outside.”
“The bottom line is,” he said, “American data stored on American soil by an American company under the control of American personnel.” It is reported that this plan will allow the American technology firm Oracle to act as an outside observer.
Questioning the plan, Congressman Jay Obernolte said: “I am concerned that what you are proposing in the framework of the Texas project simply does not have the technical capability to provide us with the necessary guarantees.”
Will TikTok be banned in the US?
At the time of writing, the United States government has not announced a ban on TikTok in the country, despite concerns about data sharing with the Chinese government.
However, whether this will change in the future is unknown. We will definitely update this article if something becomes known.
