Republicans Request Ban on TikTok Use by Congress Members Over Security Concerns

Along with 15 some Republicans, Sen. Thom Tillis( R – N. C.) and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, both of Texas, are pleading with commission officials to limit TikTok’s’s used due to security concerns.

The lawmakers requested that the app be blocked for fellow members of Congress( pdf ) in a letter dated April 17 that was sent to the Senate Rules Committee and the Committee on House Administration.

The Republican legislators wrote,” We urge you to alter the House and Senate rules to prohibit members of Congress from continuing to use TikTok and get any other suitable measures to lessen the risks of this de-facto, spyware app.”

It” became clearly obvious to the court that the China-based app is mine content and possibly spying on American citizens ,” according to a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on TikTok held in March.

Members of Congress continuing to use TikTok despite earlier expert warnings about the app’s’s information threats was deemed” unpleasant” by the politicians.

Given that there are several well-known social media apps that are not at the same risk for the possible transfer of sensitive, personal information to an hostile foreign government, the letter reads,” Some members of Congress who frequently use the app have minimized the security threat to our nation, and their defense is not compelling.”

Congressmen from both events have made an effort to restrain TikTok’s’s power. Sen. The RESTRICT Act( pdf ), which gives the Commerce Department the power to limit technology agreements with nations of national concern to the United States, is primarily sponsored by John Thune( R – S. D. ) and Mark Warner( D – Va ).

These nations, which have acrimonious ties to the United States, include China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.