The company appears to be increasing its presence in a few states. A series of regular third-party audits and reviews would ensure compliance.Īs bills banning TikTok gain momentum, ByteDance has ramped up its efforts to lobby the federal government, spending a total of $5.3 million in 2022, according to the nonprofit OpenSecrets. to store all of the social media app’s US user data. Its plan to ease US security concerns includes partnering with Oracle Corp. TikTok opened a transparency center at its Los Angeles headquarters, which lets visitors see how its content moderation, algorithms, and other tools work. “We’re disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok,” Jamal Brown, a TikTok spokesperson, told Bloomberg Law previously. The company has called the bans misguided and is making an effort to persuade government officials to change course. Some states have explicitly removed the app from devices at agencies that deal with government payroll information and other sensitive financial data, though most of bans apply statewide. Lawmakers also have raised fears that TikTok’s algorithm, which decides what content users see, could be manipulated in an attempt to spread disinformation or influence public sentiment in the US about certain issues. In December 2022, ByteDance disclosed that four of its employees had improperly accessed the information of some Americans’ accounts. The app is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., which has raised questions about the Chinese’s government’s ability to access to user data, including that of Americans. An outright ban on the app could infringe on activity on the platform that’s protected by the First Amendment, the American Enterprise Institute has said.Īdvocates of banning TikTok have primarily expressed concerns about cybersecurity risks and an adverse US relationship with the Chinese government. More than 12 higher education systems, including the University of Georgia and University of Texas at Austin, have blocked the app from campus networks or from devices owned by the schools.įederal lawmakers are currently considering legislation that would ban TikTok from all US devices, a tactic that has raised freedom of speech concerns. A handful of local lawmakers in major cities such as Denver and Baltimore have introduced their own bills to ban the app. Republican governors have issued executive orders imposing many of the state-level restrictions on TikTok’s use, but states with Democratic governors-including Kansas and New Jersey-have also banned the app. TikTok worries transcend any seeming “red” and “blue” divide. Congress later banned TikTok from being accessed on federal government devices and networks in late 2022, and a total of 44 states have taken or considered similar steps. Who is banning TikTok?Ĭoncerns about TikTok were first brought to the national stage by former President Donald Trump, who declared the app a threat to national security and issued a now-defunct executive order preventing Americans from doing business with the company. Sign up for The Brief, a daily afternoon newsletter showcasing Bloomberg Law’s top stories. But with more than 1.5 billion users worldwide, widespread adoption inspired increased scrutiny of the app’s data practices that has expanded beyond the US, with the European Union and Canadian governments recently enacting similar bans focused on government-issued devices.” TikTok exploded in popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic thanks to its short-form video content and fine-tuned algorithm. It echoes a series of earlier local, state, and federal government restrictions on use of the app. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John Thune (R-S.D.), would empower the US government to ban or force the sale of foreign-owned technologies, applications, software or e-commerce platforms that are deemed a threat to national security. The federal legislation, introduced Tuesday by Sens. A new bipartisan Senate proposal aimed in part at curbing Americans’ access to TikTok Inc.‘s popular social media app reflects growing concern across the US over perceived security risks associated with its Chinese ownership.
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