(NewsGlobal.com)- 19 FortyFive reports that the famous TikTok ban attempt in 2020 came from the administration of then-President Donald Trump, who also tried to broker a deal to sell Oracle the U.S. operations of the social media company. Trump never implemented the ban, and after he took office in 2021, President Biden formally overturned it.
More recently, Brendan Carr, a member of the FCC, has repeatedly called for the Council on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) to take action against the Chinese-owned social media app.
Carr told Axios last month, “I don’t believe there is a path forward for anything other than a ban.”
Additionally, many states have implemented restrictions on TikTok, taking steps like removing the app from state-issued devices, and earlier this month, the State of Indiana sued the company.
Austin Knudsen of Montana was one of 15 state attorneys general who on Tuesday urged Apple and Google to “correct their application store age ratings of TikTok,” referring to the app as “a Chinese Trojan horse, feeding children harmful and adult content.”
The GOP appointed Carr, Trump was a Republican, and most states that have taken action against TikTok have Republican governors.
But as evidenced by a new bill introduced in Congress, there is a certain amount of bipartisan support for outlawing TikTok.
Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship, and Influence by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act) has been introduced by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi, as well as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) in the Senate (D-IL).
According to the bill’s text, it would function by “blocking and prohibiting all transactions” by social media companies with more than a million monthly users that are either based in or have “substantial influence” over nations like “the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela.” It would seem that TikTok is the only existing social media platform that satisfies those requirements.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown, a senior editor at Reason, argued against such a ban, calling it “unworkable and unnecessary.” There are questions as to whether Congress even has the authority to prohibit a mobile application.
It’s unclear if the legislation will be reintroduced in the final weeks of Congress.
