On Thursday, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley reintroduced a bill to ban the Chinese social media app TikTok from being used on government devices. Hawley described the app as a national security risk.
"TikTok is a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party that has no place on government devices—or any American devices, for that matter," Hawley said in a statement, according to the Washington Examiner.
Hawley continued, "my bill is a straightforward plan to protect American government data from a hostile foreign power, which, less than a year ago, passed the Senate unanimously. TikTok has repeatedly proven itself to be a malicious actor but Joe Biden and Big Tech refuse to take the threat of Chinese espionage seriously."
The bill has come with some new supporters: Republican Sens. Rick Scott, and Marco Rubio of Florida, and Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado is set to present a similar bill to the House.
"Chinese-owned apps are required to report user data to the Chinese Communist Party, that is why we cannot trust TikTok with the sensitive data that exists on U.S. government devices...It is well past time to acknowledge the serious cybersecurity threat that TikTok poses and enact a federal government-wide ban on the Chinese app," Buck said in a statement Thursday.
The social media app has already been banned in other areas of the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department, the Transportation Security Administration, and the State Department. The bill would ban the app from all other areas of the government.
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