DENVER (KDVR) — TikTok is one of the most popular social media apps in the U.S. Now, a Colorado congressman wants to ban the app nationwide over national security concerns.
The political panel on “Colorado Point of View” this week discusses the chances of the bill getting through Congress and to the president’s desk.
U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican, introduced the “No TikTok on the United States Devices Act” on Wednesday. The bill would prohibit TikTok from being downloaded on all devices in the U.S. It would also ban commercial activity with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.
“TikTok is a clear threat to our privacy and national security,” Buck said in a press release. “Not only is TikTok directly associated with the Chinese Communist Party, but it has been used to spy on Americans and gain an alarming level of access to users’ phones.”
Any chance of a TikTok ban becoming law?
Political analysts did mention that TikTok is already banned from the phones of government officials but did not seem confident about the bill’s future.
“I think there has to be oversight, education for people on what is going on, what do people have access to if you’re using the app. But it’s a slippery slope to all out ban something,” Republican strategist Michael Fields said.
Another sponsor of the bill, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, said the Chinese government is using the app, which is owned by a Chinese company, to collect data on its roughly 80 million U.S. users.
“There is some allusion at least, if not factual information, that that’s a possibility. We haven’t found any credible data that that’s happening,” Democratic strategist Andy Boian said. “I’d be more worried about Donald Trump having classified documents at his house.”
Watch the full discussion on “Colorado Point of View” this Sunday at 7:30 a.m. on Colorado’s Very Own Channel 2.