US adopts legislation banning TikTok on government devices
Bill gains senate approval but must still be passed by the House of Representatives before being presented to Joe Biden
The US Senate on Wednesday approved a bill to prohibit the use of Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok on US government computers, a move to limit alleged security threats linked with the app.
Senator Josh Hawley (Republican, Missouri) introduced the "No TikTok on Government Devices Act," which was passed via unanimous consent.
The bill still requires approval from the US House of Representatives before it can be delivered to President Joe Biden for his consideration.
In a statement, Hawley described TikTok as a "Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party," and a major security risk to the country. He added that the app "has no place on government devices" until "it is forced to sever ties with China completely."
"States across the US are banning TikTok on government devices. It's time for Joe Biden and the Democrats to help do the same," Hawley said.
The Senate action comes after the states of North Dakota and Iowa this week became the latest to join a growing number in prohibiting the use of TikTok on state-owned devices over worries that data might be passed on to Chinese government.
Around a dozen US states, including Alabama and Utah, have made similar moves. The app is already prohibited on government-owned devices by a number of federal agencies, including the State, Homeland Security and Defence departments.
On Tuesday, Republican Senator Marco Rubio also introduced a bipartisan legislation to completely ban TikTok in the US, increasing pressure on Chinese company ByteDance.
Rubio's office said the legislation would prohibit any transactions from social media companies based in or controlled by China and Russia. Rubio is also a sponsor of Hawley's bill to prohibit use of TikTok on government-owned gadgets.
Rubio said the federal government has failed to "take a single meaningful action" on the matter.
Commenting on Hawley's bill, a spokesperson for TikTok said: "Once again, Senator Hawley has moved forward with legislation to ban TikTok on government devices, a proposal which does nothing to advance US national security interests.
"We hope that rather than continuing down that road, he will urge the Administration to move forward on an agreement that would actually address his concerns."
TikTok's popularity has grown immensely in recent years after its parent firm, ByteDance, purchased and then absorbed Musical.ly, an app that allowed users to create and share lip-sync videos.
However, the app is under scrutiny in many countries over how it handles data belonging to its users.
Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers that the agency has "national security concerns" about TikTok's operations in the US.
Speaking at a US House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee hearing, Wray said that the agency's main concern about the app is the possibility that it could be used by the Chinese government to control data collection on millions of American users.
In 2020, former president Donald Trump made an attempt to prevent new users from downloading WeChat and TikTok as well as to ban other transactions that would have effectively blocked the use of the apps in the US, but he was unsuccessful in doing so after losing several legal battles.
Last year, President Joe Biden revoked the Trump directive, and asked the Treasury Department to investigate the safety risks associated with the app.
TikTok has maintained that it does not keep data on American users in China, where the law allows the government to compel businesses to hand over internal data.
In September, TikTok executive Vanessa Pappas told US Congress that TikTok was making progress toward a final deal with the US government to better secure US user data and fully address the national security interests of the country.
It is anticipated that data security requirements will be a part of any agreement reached with TikTok.