A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced legislation that would ban TikTok in the U.S.
The legislation was introduced following a warning from the FBI director and cybersecurity experts who have said China could use the social media platform to spy on Americans and censure content.
The new bill by Republican Senator Marco Rubio aims to block or prohibit all transactions from any social media company in or under the influence of China and Russia.
A companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives was also sponsored by Republican congressman Mike Gallagher and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox on Monday said, “China’s access to data collected by TikTok presents a threat to our cybersecurity,” “As a result, we’ve deleted our TikTok account and ordered the same on all state-owned devices.”
The bill comes as a result of Washington’s rocky relationship with TikTok over the past year after a failed bid by the Trump administration to ban the popular video-sharing app.
TikTok, which has more than 100 million users in the United States and is owned by the Chinese-based country ByteDance, has become popular among younger Americans.
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