Likely Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) speaks at a campaign town hall meeting on the Latest Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, Latest Hampshire, U.S., May 8, 2023.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
WASHINGTON — Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., is pushing for more transparency from social media applications amid privacy concerns about China-based apps like TikTok.
The Know Your App Act goals to extend consumer awareness of the ownership of apps by requiring stores like Google Play and the Apple App Store to discover each applications’ country or origin. The bill, introduced Tuesday, comes days after Scott announced his bid for the presidency.
Under the bill, the Treasury and Commerce departments shall be required to develop a listing of adversarial governments with potentially undue control over application content moderation, algorithm design or data transfers, based on a press release released Tuesday. App stores could be charged to warn users of the risks of downloading foreign applications and supply a filtering method by country of origin.
Representatives for Google and Apple didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment from CNBC.
The bill comes as lawmakers from each parties goal apps made or backed by Chinese firms. 4 out of 5 of the highest hottest apps in March are of Chinese origin, based on The Wall Street Journal. E-commerce app Temu, which remains to be lower than a yr old, has been scrutinized about malware concerns.
Though not in the highest five that month, China-founded, fast fashion e-tailer Shein has been accused of forced labor practices.
Scott, who’s the rating member of the Senate Banking committee, called for the U.S. to “sever” ties between TikTok, the third-most popular app in March, and its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance out of national security concerns. ByteDance adheres to Chinese national security laws allowing the federal government access to comprehensive business information under certain conditions.
“Americans should give you the option to make informed decisions concerning the online services they use with the intention to protect their data and security,” Scott said of the Know Your App Act. “Requiring app stores to display an app’s country of origin is a commonsense solution that may help them do exactly that.”Â
Users of social media apps face heightened security risks through privacy breaches and potential exploitation to which minors are especially susceptible, based on the bill.
“Parents shouldn’t fear that their family’s online privacy and security may very well be compromised when unknowingly using an app owned by a foreign adversary,” Scott said in a press release released Tuesday.
Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and James Lankford, R-Okla., also sponsored the bill.
The bill will prohibit foreign adversaries from exploiting certain tools to gather Americans’ private data “to realize advantage over america,” Wicker said in a press release.
“The Know Your App Act would bring much-needed transparency to app stores, empowering Americans to safeguard their families from exploitation,” he added.
