On Tuesday, the White House backed a new Senate bill to give the US administration powers to ban the Chinese-owned video app TikTok.
What is the Complete Story?
The new Senate bill by the White House administration boosts US efforts to ban one of the most popular video apps owned by Chinese company ByteDance, TikTok. More than 100 million Americans use the app.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner made a statement that after the new bill, the Commerce Department would have the ability to impose restrictions and ban TikTok along with other applications that pose a national security threat.
He added the bill would also be applied to foreign technologies from Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea.
TikTok Criticised the new Senate Bill
In response to the bill, TikTok criticised and said the US ban on their app is a ban on exporting American culture to more than a billion people.
Republican John Thune and Warner, including Democrats Joe Manchin, Tammy Baldwin, Michael Bennet and Kirsten Gillibrand, Republican Deb Fischer, Jerry Moran, Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, led the new Senate bill.
Warner said the government needed to clarify the national security risks from TikTok. He added it would be incumbent on the government to show its cards regarding the threat.
Jake Sullivan Praises the Bill
Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security adviser praised the new bill and said it would boost the US’s ability to identify discrete and systematic risks posed by certain classes of transactions.
Sullivan added we continue working with both Democrats and Republicans on the bill. Separately, Raimondo made a statement that she welcomes the bill for addressing the security risks.
She even vowed to work with the Senators to advance the legislation through Congress.
Senator Marco Rubio said we should pass this bill to ban TikTok. Last week, the committee from the House Foreign Affairs voted on a bill sponsored by Michael McCaul to give US President Joe Biden the power to ban TikTok.
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