In the United States, the noose is closing around TikTok. On December 27, the Senate approved a ban on the social network on government phones. Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher goes further by comparing Internet addiction to “digital fentanyl” and wants to ban it in the United States.
Guest on Sunday, January 1 at the show Meet the press In the chain nbcMike Gallagher said that TikTok is comparable to “digital fentanyl (an opioid used for chronic pain)” because “it’s highly addictive and destructive. We have worrying data about the negative impact of constant social media use, especially on young Americans.” . ”, he said on the air.
China is aiming directly
Mike Gallagher also attacks the use of the Internet by Chinese propaganda. He believes that TikTok, which is growing in popularity, should be controlled and claims that the social network is directly linked to the Chinese Communist Party: “TikTok is owned by ByteDance and ByteDance is in fact controlled by the CCP (…) We must ask ourselves if we want the CCP to control what is about to become the most powerful social network in America,” he warned innbc.
Before going even further and wondering if TikTok doesn’t control American information. “What if they start censoring the news, right? What if they start changing the algorithm to determine what the CCP sees fit to say,” Mike Gallagher ranted with a dubious analogy to the KGB and Pravda “who bought the New York Times and other major newspapers at the time of the Cold War”.
For its part, TikTok has denied this information, reports the financial timessaying there was “no truth” to the deputy’s claims and that they are available for Congress to brief members on the company’s “comprehensive plan to address national security concerns.”
American takeover?
More generally, US politicians define TikTok as a potential national security risk. Last month, the US Senate voted to pass a bill that would ban federal employees from using TikTok on government devices. More than a dozen US states have already taken steps to ban their employees from installing TikTok on these phones.
Mike Gallagher also says he’s open to selling TikTok to an American company, which he says would be “a viable solution.” He even filed legislation with Marco Rubio to ban TikTok entirely in the United States.
Le mois dernier, the director of the FBI, Chris Wray, has declared that TikTok is being used to facilitate espionage and that Beijing has the ability to control the algorithm of the application de manière to facilitate the “opérations d’influence” In the U.S.
Since 2020, TikTok has been negotiating with the US government over a possible agreement to address national security concerns and allow the app to remain accessible to US users. But the apparent lack of results in the negotiations it has led some politicians to push to ban the app.
Source: BFM TV
