[The Epoch Times ، 15 كانون الأول (ديسمبر) 2022](Reporting by Epoch Times reporter Takasugi)we.SenateThe legislation was voted unanimously on Wednesday (December 14) to ban federal employees from using the video-sharing app TikTok on government devices.
shouldlaw ProjectStill need to get itwe.It must be approved by the House of Representatives before it is submitted to President Joe Biden for his signature. The House needs to pass itSenateof this law.
The Senate vote is the latest move by US lawmakers to crack down on Chinese companies. Because they are concerned that the Chinese government may use these companies to spy on Americans and collect personal information.
Several states issued bans on TikTok ahead of the Senate action. This week, North Dakota and Iowa also banned the use of TikTok, the short video-sharing app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, on state government devices. Because they are all concerned that the data of American users may be transferred to the Chinese government.
During the last Congress, the Senate unanimously passed a law in August 2020 banning the use of TikTok on government devices.law ProjectRepublican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, the sponsor of the law, reintroduced the legislation in 2021.
Specifically, the law (PDF) requires the Office of Management and Budget to develop standards for enforcement agencies that require the removal of TikTok and any subsequent apps from their owners from any device issued by the United States government or government organization.
Several US federal government agencies, including the Department of Defense and Homeland Security and the state, have banned the use of TikTok on government-owned devices. “TikTok is a huge security risk for the United States, and it shouldn’t be on government equipment,” Hawley previously said.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds have issued orders preventing enforcement agencies from downloading and using the TikTok app on any government-issued device.
So far, more than a dozen states in the US have taken similar measures, including Alabama and Utah.
TikTok responded that these concerns about the company were, in large part, due to misinformation. They would be happy to meet with US policymakers to discuss the company’s approach.
“We are disappointed that many countries have jumped on the political bandwagon to base their policy on baseless lies about TikTok. This does nothing to advance America’s national security,” TikTok said on Wednesday.
Other states that have taken similar action include: Texas, Maryland and South Dakota.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (Dec. 13) unveiled bipartisan legislation on Tuesday (Dec. 13) calling for a complete ban on TikTok in the US amid concerns that the short video app could be used to monitor Americans and implement content censorship, thereby increasing pressure on the company. ByteDance”. Rubio is also a cosponsor of Hawley’s TikTok Ban Government Devices Bill.
Rubio’s office said the legislation would ban all transactions from any social media company in or affected by China and Russia.
At a hearing last month, FBI Director Chris Wray indicated that TikTok’s US operations raised national security concerns.
In 2020, then-President Donald Trump tried to block new users from downloading TikTok entirely and block other transactions, saying he would effectively ban the apps from being used in the United States. But in the end he lost a series of court battles and failed to implement a series of his measures.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States of the US government is a powerful national security agency. It ordered ByteDance to be stripped from TikTok in 2020 because data of US users on the platform might be transferred to the Chinese government overtly or covertly. Although “ByteDance” has always insisted it didn’t.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and TikTok have been negotiating for months for a national security agreement to protect the data of more than 100 million American users on TikTok. But it seems that before the end of the year the two sides will not reach any agreement.
Responsible editor: Ye Ziwei #
