US Plans To Ban TikTok
Ahead of the dramatic 5 hours-long grilling of the chief executive of TikTok Shou Zi Chew last week, the United States lawmakers are planning to put a national ban as users including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez take to the app to protest.
US to push a ban on TikTok
The planning to push a ban against TikTok comes after company chief Chew appeared before a US House committee on Thursday, where lawmakers from both parties questioned national security and other concerns including the Chinese application.
Ahead of the hearing, the Congresswoman made her first ever TikTok speak out against the potential ban, highlighting the unparallel nature of such a step. Whilst, thousands of video edits have surfaced throughout the application making fun of moments during the hearing session.
Taking notes from the TikTok-US controversy, the grassroots social media application efforts highlight a tension between the app’s growing popularity and lawmakers’ push for a ban on it. Moreover, more than 150 million users of TikTok are from the United States.
Despite the ongoing protest, the US authorities might come up to implement several restrictions on the platform.
Speaking to the media, the US House of Representatives speaker, Kevin McCarthy said that the lawmakers will move forward with legislation to address national security concerns about TikTok, alleging China’s government has had access to the app’s user data.
Taking to Twitter, the speaker wrote, “The House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist party.”
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‘Keep TikTok’
During Thursday’s hearing, the TikTok owner was asked if the application has spied on Americans at Beijing’s request. “No,” the CEO replied. Outside of the hearing, a group of over 30 content creators protested the potential ban. They were also holding signs that said: “Keep TikTok.”
Moreover, Republican congressman Neal Dunn referenced TikTok’s disclosure in December that some China-based employees at ByteDance improperly accessed the TikTok user data of two journalists and were no longer employed by the company. He repeated his question about whether ByteDance was spying.
Responding to the allegations, Chew said, “I don’t think that spying is the right way to describe it.” Describing more he said that the reports as involving an “internal investigation” before being cut off.
Speaker McCarthy took a tweet and wrote, “It’s very concerning that the CEO of TikTok can’t be honest and admit what we already know to be true – China has access to TikTok user data.”
Further, TikTok has said that it has spent more than $1.5bn on data security efforts under a plan dubbed “Project Texas”, which aims to alleviate lawmakers’ concerns by relocating all US user data to centres outside of China, through a partnership with the Texas-based firm Oracle.
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