Image source: China Visual

BEIJING, December 14 (TMTPOST) — U.S. lawmakers have introduced a new bipartisan bill to ban TikTok, the most popular Chinese app overseas, citing national security concerns. 

Once the bill is approved, operations of TikTok in the U.S. will suffer. The ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act proposed by Florida Senator Marco Rubio will block and prohibit transactions from social media companies of or under the influence of countries like China and Russia. Meanwhile, representatives Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois introduced companion legislation in the House. 

“To protect Americans from the threat posed by certain foreign adversaries using current or potential future social media companies that those foreign adversaries control to surveil Americans, learn sensitive data about Americans, or spread influence campaigns, propaganda, and censorship,” the bill said.

 However, only TikTok and its parent company ByteDance was listed as an example of social media companies in the bill, when several states in the U.S. are trying to ban the use of TikTok on state-owned devices. On the same day, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds issued a directive to prohibit state agencies from subscribing to or owning an account on this Chinese-owned social media platform.

 “It is clear that TikTok represents a national security risk to our country and I refuse to subject the citizens of Iowa to that risk,” said Reynolds. “They trust us with their personal and confidential information and we will take every step possible to protect it, including from the Chinese government. The safety of Iowans is my number one priority and that includes their cybersecurity.” 

 According to DemandSage, TikTok is used by 21 percent of the world’s 4.8 billion internet users. The number of its monthly active users reached over 1.5 billion in the third quarter of 2022, ranking the sixth after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram and WeChat.