A Republican senator has announced he officially plans to introduce legislation that would ban the social media app TikTok in the United States.
In a tweet, Senator Josh Hawley, stated that on Wednesday he would submit legislation to ban TikTok as it is “China’s backdoor into Americans’ lives.”
The main concern is that China-owned social media can be used to surveil Americans, learn about their patterns and ways of thinking, and spread propaganda. He also claims there are privacy concerns for children and that the app negatively affects their mental health.
There has already been a bill enacted that bans the app and other applications by parent company ByteDance on some government devices.
Furthermore, in late December, the chief administrative officer of the House, ordered lawmakers and staffers to delete TikTok from any House-issued mobile phones and prohibited them from redownloading the app.
While this may seem like an aggressive bill, several states have already taken steps to prohibit the use of TikTok on government devices. Many public universities have also restricted access to TikTok on school computers, mobile phones, and Wi-Fi.
In 2020, the President at the time, Donald Trump, tried to keep Americans from downloading TikTok, but faced court battles against the legislation.
Watch the video below to hear more about why many legislators want to ban TikTok:
Featured image credit to TikTok
