US Lawmakers May Change TikTok Ban Bill After its ‘Aggressive Lobbying’

U.S. lawmakers are considering making changes to the bill that would give the Biden administration new powers to ban Chinese-owned TikTok — after the company’s “aggressive lobbying.”

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee who co-sponsored the legislation that would help “ban or prohibit” foreign technology such as TikTok, made the comments to Reuters today.

Warner told Reuters that aggressive lobbying by ByteDance-owned TikTok against the legislation “slowed a bit of our momentum” after the “Restrict Act” bill was first introduced in March.

Warner says lawmakers now have “a proposal on a series of amendments to make it explicitly clear” and address criticisms, including that individual Americans could be impacted or that the bill represents a broad expansion of government power.

“We can take care of those concerns in a fair way,” Warner says.

If passed, the “Restrict Act” would give President Biden authority to ban or force a sale of foreign-owned technologies, applications, software, or e-commerce platforms if they present a national security threat to U.S users.

Federal officials are particularly concerned that American user data on TikTok could fall into the hands of the Chinese government, due to a law in China that compels firms to hand over information to Beijing if they are requested to do so. TikTok is used by more than 100 million Americans.

According to a new Pew Research Center survey published yesterday, almost 60% of Americans now consider TikTok to be a threat to national security in the U.S.

The Barriers to a TikTok Ban

But Warner’s comments to Reuters today reveal the challenges the U.S. faces if lawmakers attempt a nationwide ban of TikTok — something which has become a real possibility in recent months.

In May, Montana officially become the first state to completely ban the Chinese-owned video app in the U.S.

However, hours after Montana’s total ban was signed into law, a group of five TikTok users filed a high-profile lawsuit against the state seeking to overturn the legislation.

Last week, TikTok finally admitted to quietly bankrolling the lawsuit brought by the users against Montana’s state-wide ban on the video-sharing app — a detail that the company failed to mention previously.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.