Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., has announced he plans to introduce legislation Wednesday that would ban the popular social media app TikTok in the United States.
In a tweet Tuesday, Hawley said that TikTok is "China's backdoor into Americans" lives. It threatens our children's privacy as well as their mental health. Last month Congress banned it on all government devices. Now I will introduce legislation to ban it nationwide."
Hawley said in a separate tweet he plans to unveil the measure on Wednesday.
"What my bill does is it specifically goes after TikTok — it bans it. It doesn’t ban any other app, but it also requires a comprehensive report to Congress on the national security threat" that the app poses and its relationship to the Chinese Communist Party, Hawley told reporters on Capitol Hill. "But listen, I welcome all efforts to ban TikTok, of whatever form it takes."
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While the bill likely won't pass through the current divided Congress, a separate measure banning TikTok on some government devices, wrapped into the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill, has already been enacted. The provision, which President Joe Biden signed into law last month, banned the app and other applications by TikTok's Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, on all executive branch devices. It did not, however, apply to members of Congress and their staffs.
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