White House supports Senate bill that would enable US to ban TikTok

[midian182]

What just happened? The US has taken a step closer to banning TikTok after the White House backed legislation introduced by a dozen senators that would enable the Commerce Department to impose restrictions, including bans, on apps and technologies that pose a national security risk.

The bipartisan Senate bill endorsed by the White House empowers Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo to review deals, software updates, or data transfers by information and communications technology in which a foreign adversary has an interest, writes CNBC. There are six foreign adversary nations named in the bill: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan urged Congress "to act quickly to send the bill to the President's desk."

The bill, called the RESTRICT act (Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology), could have a huge impact on TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.

Despite its massive popularity, TikTok has for years come under scrutiny for its data-collection practices and ByteDance's alleged ties to the Chinese government. Trump tried to ban the app completely when he was in office, and the FCC commissioner has called on Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their stores. Senators previously called for a total ban, and the FBI director said the app is China's best espionage tool.

It's not just the US that has concerns over the app; the EU Commission recently banned TikTok from employee devices over cybersecurity fears. TikTok CEO to Shou Zi Chew will testify before Congress on March 23 over the security concerns.

Glad to join @MarkWarner, @SenJohnThune, and our colleagues in introducing the RESTRICT Act, providing @CommerceGov with the tools necessary to identify, prevent and mitigate technological threats, like TikTok, originating from foreign adversaries. pic.twitter.com/Y4d6D6yaan

— Sen. Dan Sullivan (@SenDanSullivan) March 7, 2023

TikTok, which rejects the spying accusations and says it has spent more than $1.5 billion on data security, responded to the bill with a statement that claimed any "US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide."

"We hope that Congress will explore solutions to their national security concerns that won't have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans."

NEW: The White House has endorsed this bill. We have a broad, bipartisan coalition to get it done. https://t.co/C2sBQktt8f

— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) March 7, 2023

While TikTok could be the biggest casualty, Senators that introduced the bill said it was not singling out the app. "The RESTRICT Act is more than about TikTok. It will give us that comprehensive approach," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Should TikTok ever be banned in the US, it's likely that many users will circumvent the ban by using VPNs, which, ironically, is how many Chinese citizens access western internet services that are prohibited in the country.

Via Reuters, CNBC

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/97858-white-house-supports-senate-bill-would-enable-us.html

 

[Hexic]

Orange Man does it first, bad.

Biden does it next (with increased scope), wonderous support.

*****s, *****s as far as the eye can see.

/E: !diot is a prohibited word? Yikes.

 

[return]

Good, piss off China. I want to enjoy the show when China stop manufacturing for the US.

 

[Tetr1s]

I genuinely hated Tiktok from the beginning, so I'm glad it's being banned. So annoying seeing people my age do stupid challenges that could get them hurt/killed, absolutely special people.

 

[NicktheWVAHick]

Never used Tik Tok, but can someone explain what exactly are the specific security concerns they talk about? They say spying but all I ever see is a bunch of brain-dead teenagers dancing like buffoons in front of the camera. Unless of course we are paying our federal employees to install it on sensitive government computers and act like dancing buffoons at the NSA & Dept of Defense instead of protecting our country? In that case, the proper solution would be to terminate their employment, wouldn’t it?

 

[Dimitriid]

Whenever anyone here likes or dislikes Tiktok the bigger story is why this is being done. The official story is probably "National Security" but let's not mince words here: Tiktok is growing so quickly it might start to compete with US based social media companies.

A competitor? In a free market economy? Nope: can't have that. It's better to just kill them prematurely just like the case with Huawei, except in that case there was a hint of a justifiable reason whereas here, well there's just not: it very conveniently stuck around unbanned long enough for say, youtube to prepare their short video service but now they're confident they're ready for that influx of users, well now everybody is deeply concerned about an orientalist fear of spying from China.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Everything is going according to Zuckerberg's plan. He considers TikTok to be a threat, so he's using his money and influence to get it banned in the USA.

So much for "American Democracy".

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Whenever anyone here likes or dislikes Tiktok the bigger story is why this is being done. The official story is probably "National Security" but let's not mince words here: Tiktok is growing so quickly it might start to compete with US based social media companies.

A competitor? In a free market economy? Nope: can't have that. It's better to just kill them prematurely just like the case with Huawei, except in that case there was a hint of a justifiable reason whereas here, well there's just not: it very conveniently stuck around unbanned long enough for say, youtube to prepare their short video service but now they're confident they're ready for that influx of users, well now everybody is deeply concerned about an orientalist fear of spying from China.

This is about more then just being a competitor. The vague language of this bill allows any app or technology, like say a crowdsourced app that tracks the movements of authorities during, say, a peaceful protest, or apps that track statements made by politicians, ece to be banned under "national security". "security" has been used over and over again to expand the power of the government.

All their lines about "espionage" and "spying" are hollow in the face of facebook and google. This isnt about a silly app, its about being able to crush any app or group that says things you do not like.

Orange Man does it first, bad.

Biden does it next (with increased scope), wonderous support.

*****s, *****s as far as the eye can see.

/E: !diot is a prohibited word? Yikes.

Rules for thee but not for me. Notice he wasnt all to interested in repealing certain travel bans or trade tariffs despite hammering them years prior?

 

[DSirius]

Great, now replace in this 'article' Chinese government with US government (NSA, CIA, FBI) and TikTok with Facebook, Instagram, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter etc. and will have a real picture of these phenomena multiplied by more than 6.
Time to acknowledge that all those US corporations and their apps, Facebook-Meta, Instagram, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter started first and are doing things worse than that even now. Pointing in the wrong direction while doing worse is like 'peesing' against the wind, it will always come back to you.
The rest of the world will have to ban them all. Good luck with that, US.

P.S. I wrote 'article' because it is a low quality article, full of US lame propaganda against a competitor which is better than all these US corporations.
From this point of view, I am bringing a challenge to the redactors of TechSpot. Make an honest test, analyses of TikTok and the US competitors apps like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube (may be more) and rank them, which are good which are bad and which is the best.
After that, write 'articles' in which you may approach the political US bias and propaganda.
Good luck

 

[DSirius]

I genuinely hated Tiktok from the beginning, so I'm glad it's being banned. So annoying seeing people my age do stupid challenges that could get them hurt/killed, absolutely special people.

Time to acknowledge that Facebook and Instagram started first and are doing things worse than that even now. Pointing in the wrong direction while doing worse is like 'peesing' against the wind, it will always come back to you.
BTW you can filter on TikTok what you want to see, I do not get any stupid tiktok videos like those you mentioned. In fact Tik Tok is a great mirror reflection of the trends in social groups.
Also TikTok as an app competing with others is miles away better than Facebook, Instagram and Google youtube combined.
And those US corporations are loosing competition hard against TikTok.

 

[hahahanoobs]

"US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide."

Does anyone here think TikTok is THAT important to keep it around for the above reason? There has to be a more professional, respected and safer method of export, right? lol

 

[Theinsanegamer]

"US ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide."

Does anyone here think TikTok is THAT important to keep it around for the above reason? There has to be a more professional, respected and safer method of export, right? lol

Funny how the moment the NSA doesnt have it's fingers int he pie, said pie is suddenly "unsafe" LMFAO.

 

[Zsoltblabla]

I genuinely hated Tiktok from the beginning, so I'm glad it's being banned. So annoying seeing people my age do stupid challenges that could get them hurt/killed, absolutely special people.

Not a fan of TickTock either, hut this has nothing to with it… your generation will just use some other platform to do stupid stuff…

 

[Bl00dyMinded]

I genuinely hated Tiktok from the beginning, so I'm glad it's being banned. So annoying seeing people my age do stupid challenges that could get them hurt/killed, absolutely special people.

Gotta love people who don't read the article at all or misinformed.. This bill is just to ban TikTok from government officials using it on government issued devices... This isn't going to ban Tiktok for the public use... SMH

 

[mgilbert]

Too bad we can't ban all so called "social media" platforms. Maybe then people could put their phones down when in public, and our kids could actually learn to communicate in person using grammatically correct, full sentences.

 

[Tetr1s]

Not a fan of TickTock either, hut this has nothing to with it… your generation will just use some other platform to do stupid stuff…

true asf, it was fine when it was just Instagram and Snapchat, but now it's a little to much, a lot more misinformation is being spread with TikTok lol

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Never used Tik Tok, but can someone explain what exactly are the specific security concerns they talk about? They say spying but all I ever see is a bunch of brain-dead teenagers dancing like buffoons in front of the camera. Unless of course we are paying our federal employees to install it on sensitive government computers and act like dancing buffoons at the NSA & Dept of Defense instead of protecting our country? In that case, the proper solution would be to terminate their employment, wouldn’t it?

Here’s an article on how it’s a security concern: https://www.cisecurity.org/insights/blog/why-tiktok-is-the-latest-security-threat

- Data is collected without consent or regard to age (ie. under 13 year olds)
- Data is collected that should not be collected (ie. browsing history outside the app without creating an account)
- Biometric data is collected without consent and can be used in any way (including voice, face, iris and fingerprints)
- All data must be shared with the Chinese government by law for intelligence purposes if they request it

There are some caveats to this, but they’re a lot more minor than they seem. This information is laid our in the privacy policy today. The only attempt to address these concerns afaik was to set up servers to store user data in the US (but not all data).

 

[brucek]

Glad to see the scrutiny on TikTok's spying and data collection practices.

Can we now extend those concerns to all the other apps that do the same thing?

And btw while it may be convenient for China to control TikTok top to bottom, it's not like they can't easily buy all the information they want from the other platforms using shell companies anyway.

I wish EFF would start a program to use all available means to provide the location histories for all US lawmakers. Not because I want that information public, but because if it was placed front and center how much information was out there, the lawmakers might finally act briskly to do something about it.

 

[Uncle Al]

Not to worry, there already are more social media sites and no doubt, more will spring up to take their place. Frankly, shutting them ALL down would benefit the country not to mention forcing people to get out and engage with each other once again. Wow, actually meeting your neighbors ..... what a concept!!!

 

[Dimitrios]

My second job was working as a maintenance worker at my local school. What I found alarming was that almost every teacher and employee was glued on TikTok. Also I think I stated this here (sorry if I'm repeating myself) just 1-3 months before C O V I D was an issue I had to unlock every door in my school on the 3rd floor because GOOGLE contracted a company to scan almost every room/hallway of every school with tripods and some weird laser scanner to make it look 3D. I and my manager asked why and they got weird. They claimed it was for learning purpose's and something with making it more efficient and about firemen/rescue I guess.

 

[toooooot]

I understand the China threat and everything but I would like them to provide more info to the public regarding how and how much risk it poses.
Now obviously, allowing China to build your 5g, your f**ng data transfer tool, is a threat no doubt but Tiktoc does not seem dangerous without some research.
On the other hand, they banned everything western in China, no shame doing the same.

 

[MyIOnU]

Good, piss off China. I want to enjoy the show when China stop manufacturing for the US.

Awesome if they do that. That will force people to bring back all manufactures to the US or South America. That means more jobs for South America Countries and that will also resolve the issue with illegal immigration.

 

[James Ryan]

Great, now replace in this 'article' Chinese government with US government (NSA, CIA, FBI) and TikTok with Facebook, Instagram, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter etc. and will have a real picture of these phenomena multiplied by more than 6.
Time to acknowledge that all those US corporations and their apps, Facebook-Meta, Instagram, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter started first and are doing things worse than that even now. Pointing in the wrong direction while doing worse is like 'peesing' against the wind, it will always come back to you.
The rest of the world will have to ban them all. Good luck with that, US.

P.S. I wrote 'article' because it is a low quality article, full of US lame propaganda against a competitor which is better than all these US corporations.
From this point of view, I am bringing a challenge to the redactors of TechSpot. Make an honest test, analyses of TikTok and the US competitors apps like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube (may be more) and rank them, which are good which are bad and which is the best.
After that, write 'articles' in which you may approach the political US bias and propaganda.
Good luck

100% correct on every level.

 

[Impudicus]

It feels like the Senate has become a national security risk.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Gotta love people who don't read the article at all or misinformed.. This bill is just to ban TikTok from government officials using it on government issued devices... This isn't going to ban Tiktok for the public use... SMH

YET...