U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Rick Scott (R-FL) joined forces to introduce legislation Thursday that would ban all federal employees from using TikTok on government devices.
While the U.S. Department of State, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, and the Transportation Security Administration have already banned TikTok from federal devices, the new legislation, the No TikTok on Federal Devices, would ban it from all federal devices. Citing cybersecurity concerns, the senators said they feared the Chinese government would use the app for spying on the United States government.
“TikTok poses a potential threat to personal privacy and our national security interests,” said Rubio, the Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. “There is absolutely no reason why this application, which Beijing can use to advance its malign foreign policy initiatives, should be utilized on federal devices. In its current form, this platform is not safe. I’m proud to join Senators Hawley and Scott in introducing this bill.”
The bill passed through the Senate last year.
“TikTok is a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party that has no place on government devices—or any American devices, for that matter,” Hawley said. “TikTok has repeatedly proven itself to be a malicious actor, but Joe Biden and Big Tech refuse to take the threat of Chinese espionage seriously. It’s time for Congress to act.”
Scott said federal employees might unknowingly jeopardize state secrets.
“We cannot allow federal employees to jeopardize U.S. government networks and national security by using apps like TikTok, which are connected to the Chinese Communist Party,” Scott said. “Communist China has shown again and again that it will stop at nothing to infiltrate our government networks and steal American technology and intellectual property.”