FORT WRIGHT, Ky. — A House committee advanced a bill that could cause a federal ban against the popular app TikTok.
Fears of data being funneled to the Chinese government have long sparked conversations about the safety of TikTok in the U.S.
The bill, which unanimously passed through the House Energy and Commerce Committee, would take TikTok off U.S. app stores unless parent company, ByteDance, sells TikTok within 165 days. Similar rules could be established for other apps controlled by foreign adversary companies.
Fort Wright Mayor Dave Hatter, cybersecurity professional and software engineer for 25 years, said he supports such a ban and has so for years.
“They’re not only collecting an enormous amount of information about you from your device that TikTok is installed on, it’s going to China, where the Chinese communist party, our primary adversary in the United States, has access to it," he said. "What could they do with that? Well, it’s hard to say.”
“We basically have put a tool into the pockets of tens of millions of Americans to potentially control their mind from our number-one adversary in the world. To me, it’s just nuts. So yes, I’m 100% for this.”
The company’s CEO previously testified the app poses no threat to Americans. However, U.S. officials have warned for years that China's laws could allow its government to spy on TikTok users.
“They have admitted that they have the capability to make anything go viral on TikTok,” Hatter said. “So could they say, 'Here’s some content that will cause division in America?'"
Apple’s app tracking transparency framework shows the kind of data TikTok collects, which includes contacts, location, purchase history and other financial information.
“Why does TikTok need to know about your purchases? Why does TikTok need to know your location?” Hatter said. “[TikTok] has enormous amounts of information about them that would allow [TikTok] to figure out what the right way to try to manipulate and influence them is."
"Do you want to be manipulated like that? I know I don’t.”
Nicholas Caporusso, Northern Kentucky University associate professor of computing and analytics, said TikTok works on powerful AI algorithms.
“We can just imagine what a presidential election would look like if TikTok was able to disseminate messages to so many users, also with the use of generative AI,” Caporusso said.
One question that’s been raised is whether a ban on TikTok is an affront to First Amendment rights.
”There's not a risk in terms of free speech because there are alternatives that creators have been using,” Caporusso said.
Caporusso added he thinks the bill is a good first step to addressing several types of issues raised by technology.
The bill, which has bipartisan support, now heads to a floor vote. Meanwhile, TikTok is pushing against the bill, sending messages to users saying it strips Americans of their right to free expression.
President Joe Biden has said he would support the bill, even though his office created a TikTok account.