Republicans To Move Forward With TikTok Ban After Hearing

  • by:
  • Source: Wayne Dupree
  • 03/27/2023
With Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of the social media platform, testifying before Congress on Thursday, Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), of the House, announced that the planned TikTok prohibition measure will be advanced.

China has access to TikTok user data, McCarthy said in a tweet on Sunday. "It's quite troubling that the CEO of TikTok can't be honest and accept what we already know to be true," McCarthy wrote. Legislation to shield Americans from the Chinese Communist Party's electronic encroachment will be advanced by the House.

In recent months, a number of lawmakers filed bills that would make it illegal to download and use TikTok in the United States.

According to McCarthy, there is already "bipartisan concern" among lawmakers about the security threats that the TikTok social media platform poses. He said that he would support a national ban on the app.

According to McCarthy, there is "bipartisan worry" about what is occurring on TikTok, particularly what is happening to American data. "There are a lot of different implications here, so I think they could get together and let the committees work and see what comes out when it's over,"

McCarthy said that if ByteDance had sold its interest in TikTok to a U.S.-based corporation, a congressional hearing would have taken a different stance and that the Trump administration was correct in its early worries about the app.

McCarthy's comments come after Chew spoke before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday. Members of the bipartisan panel grilled Chew about their worries about the platform, including threats to national security, data privacy, the propagation of disinformation, and the safety of children.

As a result of ByteDance's Chinese ownership of TikTok, numerous state governments as well as Congress have recently placed bans on the app on government-owned devices.

For the previous year, ties between American officials and TikTok have been tumultuous. The Biden administration recently demanded that ByteDance relinquish its shares in the business, expressing concern that the social networking site would face a possible ban in the United States.

Chew's testimony to Congress, according to Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), did nothing to ease tensions between the two sides. As CEO Shou Zi Chew testified on Thursday, Krishnamoorthi tweeted that "TikTok did itself no favors." The massive existing security concerns I've been working to address were actually made clearer by some of the answers he provided.

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