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US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy said that Congress would soon enact legislation empowering the US administration to impose a nationwide TikTok ban.
According to the official, lawmakers are actively moving forward with the initiative. This ban is needed to "protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party." Notably, the owner of TikTok is Shou Zi Chew, while the social network is controlled by China-based company ByteDance.
Earlier, the congressman expressed concern that the CEO of the popular social media app had refused to clarify the issue of Chinese authorities' access to TikTok user data. At the hearings in the US Congress, Shou Zi Chew noted that it was not supervised by China’s government. “American data is stored on American soil by an American company, overseen by American personnel,” he added.
This is not the first time TikTok comes under pressure from regulators. The social platform faced intense scrutiny back under Trump, the former US president. At present, the Biden administration also believes that the network poses a national security threat to the United States. Previously, the Wall Street Journal stated, citing competent sources, that the US authorities demanded that ByteDance sell its stake, otherwise the app would be banned. However, TikTok representatives noted that a forced sale would not address the perceived security risk.
“I think the White House is very in favor of this bill,” US Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner said on March 26.
Currently, TikTok has over 150 million active users in the United States. However, for information security purposes, the Chinese-owned app is prohibited from being used on government electronic devices. Similar restrictions have also been imposed by local authorities in several dozen states.
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