The United States is preparing a new law that can block TikTok

Posted On: March 18, 2023

KOMPAS.com – The United States government seems to really want to ban or block TikTok in their country.

According to a Reuters media report, two members of the US Senate are planning to introduce a new bill that would allow the US government to ban foreign technology.

Senator and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner said the TikTok app is one of the foreign technology products that will be reviewed under the bill.

In this way, the application for various short videos made by the Chinese company ByteDance can be considered as one of the foreign platforms that the US government has the potential to block.

Warner said the bill, which is expected to be introduced in the near future, is part of a systematic approach to foreign technology in the United States.

“The bill is to make sure we can ban it or block it or ban it if necessary,” Warner continued.

Even though there are many other foreign platforms, Warner specifically raised concerns about the TikTok app. According to him, TikTok, through videos that users are recommended to watch, can be a propaganda tool.

Unfortunately, there are no more details about the bill that could block TikTok in the United States.

Banned on government cell phones

The bill, which has the potential to ban TikTok, was proposed amid vigorous efforts by the US government to ban the TikTok app on cellphones owned or provided to government personnel.

This ban was issued at the end of December 2022. The reason why TikTok was banned was that the ByteDance app was seen as a risk to users, especially users who were members of parliament and DPR staff.

The Office of the Chief Cybersecurity Officer believes that TikTok poses “a high risk to users” due to a lack of transparency regarding how its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, handles user data.

The directive follows several other efforts to limit the use of TikTok in the United States, driven by concerns that the Chinese government could use TikTok to track and spy on people in the United States.

Previously, local governments in 19 states also banned the use of TikTok on government-owned devices citing security concerns.

The White House last week gave government agencies 30 days to ensure TikTok is off federal devices and systems.

According to a Reuters report, as compiled by KompasTekno, Wednesday (03/08/2023), more than 30 US states have banned the installation of the Tiktok app on state-owned devices.

Following the United States, the Canadian Parliament and the executive arm of the European Union, the European Commission has also banned government employees from installing and using TikTok on their work devices, including mobile phones and the tablets.

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