US fears regarding TikTok could materialize on a legal level. US Senator Marco Rubio and two members of Congress have introduced a bill aimed directly at the platform. US elected officials want to prevent the activities of the Chinese social network in the United States.
A manipulated company
The proposal provides for “blocking and prohibiting the operations” of certain social media players. Two criteria are proposed to trigger the ban, details CNN: gather at least one million users per month and be based, or under significant influence, in a country considered an enemy of the United States. This notion includes China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela.
“There is no time to waste in meaningless negotiations with a company manipulated by the Chinese Communist Party. It is time to permanently ban Beijing-controlled TikTok,” he adds.
Not rigorous with personal data
This request comes after several warnings against the Chinese platform. In November, the FBI said it was “extremely concerned” about TikTok amid global threats. This summer, Brendan Carr, commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (responsible for regulating telecommunications), described the company as a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”
All the criticism of TikTok points to too close ties between the company and the Chinese government. Especially since BuzzFeed’s revelations in June that the app would be much less rigorous with its users’ personal data than it claims. After claiming that they were not passing this information through China, it turned out that the Chinese engineers were able to access the personal data of American users.
Source: BFM TV
