USA Passes Bill to Ban TikTok
The United States Senate unanimously passed a bill banning the Chinese owned video sharing app TikTok on government devices.
On Thursday, 6th August 2020, The United States Senate unanimously passed a bill banning the Chinese owned video sharing app TikTok on government devices. Senator Josh Hawley posted a message on Twitter, “Just passed my bill banning TikTok on government devices on the Senate floor. Unanimous." The bill will now go to President Donald Trump to be signed into a law. After that all federal employees will not be allowed to download or use TikTok and all other apps developed by its parent company, ByteDance on any device issued by the US government. Senator Josh Hawley had introduced the bill first in March this year. Another Senator Rick Scott supported Josh. Senator Scott said in a statement, “Today the US Senate sent a powerful message to all companies controlled by China. Companies like TikTok, which is under the control of China, are obligated to spy, steal user data and censor any content the Government wishes." He added, “I am glad that the Senate agreed to pass my bill with Senator Hawley today to ban this app on government devices, eliminating a threat to the USA” US President Donald Trump had set 15th September as the deadline for TikTok to find a US buyer. If they fail to find any US buyer, then he said he will shut down the app in the country. On Wednesday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had said that the Trump administration is working hard to protect Americans from the threats of untrusted vendors such as Tik Tok and WeChat. We want to remove them from US app stores like those operated by Apple and Google. China and the US are at loggerheads against each other on many issues like Hong Kong National Security law, the South China Sea, the coronavirus and trade.
