There’s been plenty of news regarding TikTok as the Senate recently passed a bill to ban the social media app on government devices; however, some lawmakers are pushing for the U.S. to ban it entirely.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) presented the Senate version of the bill, while Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) introduced the House version and CNN’s media reporter Oliver Darcy shared his initial thoughts.
Darcy does feel that lawmakers do have legit concerns over TikTok.
“I think there are two things going on here, right?” Darcy said on CNN Tuesday. “One is that lawmakers have legitimate concerns about TikTok, about whether U.S. Data can be assessed by the Chinese, which obviously TikTok says no, and then whether China could eventually tweak the algorithm, maybe at some point to alter U.S. Perception towards the Chinese government. Those are some concerns that lawmakers have.
Furthermore, Darcy noted that some lawmakers are indeed using this bill against TikTok to show their voters their tough stance on China.
“I think the other thing that’s happening here is Republican lawmakers primarily are using TikTok as the face of the Chinese government,” Darcy added.
“And so to show to their constituents, which is very popular right now, to have a hard stance on China, to show to their constituents that they’re taking this hardline stance, they are basically saying, we want to ban TikTok and using this as a vehicle to deliver that message to their base.”
Eduardo Razo is the Assistant Content Editor for BNM, which includes writing daily news stories on the news media industry. He can be found on Twitter @eddierazo_ or you can reach him by email at eddie1991razo@gmail.com.
