US Senate Votes to Prohibit TikTok on Government Devices Due to Security Concerns
The TikTok logo is seen on a cell phone, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022, in Boston.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – US senators have unanimously enacted a bill banning the download and usage of Chinese video hosting service TikTok on any device issued by the United States or a government corporation, citing security concerns, the US Congress said on Thursday.
"S. 1143. To prohibit certain individuals from downloading or using TikTok on any device issued by the United States or a government corporation … this Act may be cited as the 'No TikTok on Government Devices Act'," the document read.
The measures have been already introduced at a local level in the US states of Alabama, Texas and North Dakota. On Tuesday, US Senator Marco Rubio introduced bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok from operating in the US. According to Rubio, the parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, is required by Chinese law to make the application’s data available to the Chinese Communist Party, which allegedly poses a risk of the video hosting service being used as a spying tool. The previous US administration attempted to ban Chinese social platforms TikTok and WeChat in 2020 in order to protect Americans’ privacy. The administration of incumbent US President Joe Biden discontinued the initiative. However, recently the accusations against the company have started to resume.
