Florida state Rep. Carolina Amesty told Newsmax Monday that it’s “astonishing” that the Biden White House has not taken more of a hard line position when it comes to the Chinese Communist Party.
“It's astonishing that the Biden administration is doing absolutely nothing to secure our national security and I, here in the state of Florida, introduced a bill to protect us from the Chinese government spying on us,” Amesty said during an appearance on Newsmax’s “The Chris Salcedo Show.” “It is evident, the FBI has already stated, that TikTok is utilized to spy on Americans, and it's a threat to our national security.”
“In the state of Florida, we're not going to allow it,” she continued. “So I've introduced this bill, and I hope to have all the support of our Republican caucus and our community at large.”
Amesty filed HB 563 for consideration during the Florida legislative session that will begin on March 7, according to CBS.
The bill would ban the social media app TikTok from government-issued cell phones and other devices and would apply to state, local and regional government agencies.
In December, Congress approved a measure banning TikTok on federal government devices.
Building on that momentum, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., introduced legislation in their respective chambers in January to ban downloading TikTok on all U.S. devices.
Beijing-based social media company ByteDance, which operates TikTok, has drawn scrutiny over concerns Americans’ data could be shared with China’s communist government.
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