Mobile

Bill to ban TikTok on government devices passes unanimously on Senate floor: Sen Hawley announces

The Senate votes unanimously to ban popular video app TikTok from government devices with the passing of the “No TikTok on Government Devices Act,” Senator Josh Hawley announces on Twitter.

Senators Hawley and Rick Scott introduced the bill in March, and today Hawley tweeted the results of the Senate vote — “unanimous.”

The No TikTok on Government Devices Act “prohibits employees and officers of the United States, Members of Congress, congressional employees, and officers and employees of government corporations from downloading or using TikTok, or any successor application from the developer, on any device issued by the federal government or a government corporation, with the exception of specified activities (e.g., cybersecurity research).”

In March, Hawley announced he would introduce legislature to ban TikTok from government devices at the beginning of a hearing in the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism as a response to the perceived security threat that TikTok posed.

“Today, I’m announcing I will introduce legislation to ban the use of TikTok by all federal employees on all federal government devices,” said Hawley on March 4.

“This is a necessary step to protect the security of the United States, and the data security of every American.”

TikTok is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, and the app has become extremely popular among Millennials all over the world.

“More teenagers are on TikTok now than use Facebook. It counts millions and millions and millions of Americans as users,” said Hawley back in March.

“But it is owned by a Chinese company that includes Chinese Communist Party members in leadership, and it is required under Chinese law to share user data with Beijing.

“TikTok has admitted that it has sent user data to China.

“To put it bluntly, this is a major security risk for the American people,” he added.

Now, Microsoft is reportedly looking to buy TikTok’s entire global business, but Reuters reported that “Microsoft had not raised the prospect of buying all of TikTok in its negotiations with ByteDance.”

Tim Hinchliffe

The Sociable editor Tim Hinchliffe covers tech and society, with perspectives on public and private policies proposed by governments, unelected globalists, think tanks, big tech companies, defense departments, and intelligence agencies. Previously, Tim was a reporter for the Ghanaian Chronicle in West Africa and an editor at Colombia Reports in South America. These days, he is only responsible for articles he writes and publishes in his own name. tim@sociable.co

Recent Posts

AI reasoning and the infinite puzzle of Borges’ Library of Babel

Many people have the intuition that an LLM (Large Language Model, e.g. ChatGPT) doesn't really understand…

2 days ago

UK’s DARPA-inspired ARIA opens ‘Engineering Ecosystem Resilience’ research opportunity

ARIA's opportunity space for engineering ecosystem resilience follows a global trend of public and private…

2 days ago

Healthcare providers now have unprecedented data insights into the patient journey as PurpleLab® acquires KAID Health

In the U.S., we’re seeing an incredible growth of the healthcare analytics market, with the…

3 days ago

First Financial Federal Credit Union prioritizes empathy with Ribbon partnership for inheritance claims 

When our loved ones pass on, it can be one of the most traumatic events…

3 days ago

Tackling antimicrobial resistance with new cleaning protocols

When we hear the word pandemic, our mind is likely to jump to the events…

3 days ago

Peru makes history: defeats Japan to claim Pokémon Unite World Championship title

Team Peru Unite made history in Anaheim, California by defeating Japan’s powerhouse Zeta Division 3-1…

3 days ago