ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Lawmakers in Washington are calling for the ban of social media app, TikTok, whose Chinese parent company is ByteDance, in the United States.
Sen. Marco Rubio introduced the bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok, stating in a news release the app's parent company is required by law to make the TikTok's data available to the Chinese Communist Party.
"From the FBI Director to FCC Commissioners to cybersecurity experts, everyone has made clear the risk of TikTok being used to spy on Americans," the news release from Rubio's office states.
The bill called the Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act, or the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act, would protect Americans by blocking "all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern."
TikTok is a short-form video hosting service where users upload content such as pranks, stunts, storytelling, dance and other acts from anywhere between 15 seconds to minutes long.
Rubio called the issue a national security threat in a video calling for the outlawing of the app.
"They allow the Chinese Communist Party to gain access to all of the private data on any device in America that’s using TikTok," Rubio said in the video. "That’s our kids, [and] that’s phones connected to our kids’ phones."
He continued, "It’s a national security threat, but it’s a direct threat to our way of life, our economics, it’s allowed them to interfere in the midterm elections."
Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) introduced companion legislation in the House as well. Gallagher compared the app to a drug in a statement calling for the app to be banned.
"TikTok is digital fentanyl that’s addicting Americans, collecting troves of their data, and censoring their news. It’s also an increasingly powerful media company owned by ByteDance," Gallagher said, in part, in a statement. "No country with even a passing interest in its own security would allow this to happen, which is why it’s time to ban TikTok and any other CCP-controlled app before it’s too late."
Krishnamoorthi echoed the same sentiment.
"At a time when the Chinese Communist Party and our other adversaries abroad are seeking any advantage they can find against the United States through espionage and mass surveillance, it is imperative that we do not allow hostile powers to potentially control social media networks that could be easily weaponized against us," he said in a statement.
Not only are lawmakers at the federal level calling for the ban of TikTok but Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is demanding that Apple and Google correct the TikTok age rating in the application stores. It's not only Moody, 14 other state attorneys general claim the change could help parents protect their children from harmful content online.
Currently, TikTok is rated "T" for "Teen" in the Google Play App store and "12+" in Apple's App store, Moody said in a news release.
"While TikTok does have a 'restricted mode' available, many users under the age of 13 lie about age in order to create a profile on the platform," the news release states. "The TikTok app contains frequent and extreme alcohol, tobacco and drug use or references, sexual content, profanity and mature/suggestive themes."
Therefore, the coalition of attorneys general sent a pair of letters to Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai outlining the "deceptive nature" of the current ratings for TikTok.
"While our investigation into TikTok continues, it is important that action is taken now to better protect children from harmful content they might encounter on this China-owned social media platform," Moody said in a statement. "If TikTok isn’t banned outright, app stores should at the very least increase the age rating on the TikTok app to ensure parents know that this social media platform is not appropriate for users under the age of 17."
At the risk of under-aged children possibly being exposed to drug, alcohol and tobacco content, attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Virginia call for the age rating to be raised.
This is not Rubio's first time demanding TikTok be banned. He called for the outlawing of the app after he said China's government took an ownership stake in the app's parent company in August 2021. Back then, Rubio called on President Joe Biden to block the popular app, stating, "The Biden Administration can no longer pretend that TikTok is not beholden to the Chinese Communist Party."
Rubio has repeatedly asked both Biden and former President Donald Trump to ban the app in the U.S. through various forms of legislation.
