On this photo illustration, a TikTok App Logo is displayed on a cell phone.
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Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., said Sunday he’s introducing a broad bipartisan bill this week that can outline an approach to banning or prohibiting foreign technology, like the favored video-sharing app TikTok.
TikTok is a short-form video platform that’s utilized by greater than 100 million Americans. Data privacy concerns have been swirling across the app due to its parent company ByteDance, which relies in China and privately held.
Warner said he’s working on the bill with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., adding that he is anxious over the variety of content that Americans are seeing on TikTok.
“They’re taking data from Americans, not keeping it secure, but what worries me more with TikTok is that this is usually a propaganda tool,” he told “Fox News Sunday.”
Warner’s laws comes after U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill that may grant President Joe Biden the authority to ban TikTok. The bill passed the Republican-controlled committee 24-16 along party lines, with unanimous GOP support and no Democratic votes.
But even with the laws that got here before the committee last week, lawmakers have a protracted method to go before any real ban might be implemented.
Assuming this bill gets through the Republican-controlled House, the Democratic-majority Senate would should pass some version of it, which can be a challenge based on the opposition that has already been voiced by some Democrats. If it did pass the Senate, Biden would still need to come to a decision whether to veto it or sign it.
TikTok isn’t any stranger to challenges from U.S. officials, as former President Donald Trump declared his intention to ban the app by executive motion in 2020. Congress banned TikTok from government devices as a part of a bipartisan spending bill in December, several governors have removed the app from state computer networks —including at public universities — and Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., renewed calls for an entire nationwide ban in January.