Marco Rubio pushes TikTok ban in Congress

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) has proposed legislation that would ban TikTok from the US, the latest in a series of political blows to the social media platform — albeit one that seems relatively unlikely to land.

The tortuously named Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party (or ANTI-SOCIAL CCP) Act would require President Joe Biden to block all US transactions with TikTok and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance. It directs Biden to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to restrict access to the service, alleging that ByteDance’s collection of American user data and its vulnerability to Chinese government pressure pose a security threat.

Representatives Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) are introducing companion legislation in the House of Representatives; Rubio did not name a Democratic co-sponsor in the Senate.

Rubio and Gallagher announced their plans last month in a Washington Post article. “TikTok offers the CCP a unique ability to monitor more than 1 billion users worldwide, including nearly two-thirds of American teenagers,” the pair wrote. “Unless TikTok and its algorithm can be separated from Beijing, the app’s use in the United States will continue to jeopardize our country’s safety and pave the way for a Chinese-influenced tech landscape here.” As noted in the Post, the bill would also apply to other large Chinese social media companies, although it only names TikTok and ByteDance.

The Republican-controlled House could potentially pass a version of Rubio’s bill, but its odds in the Democrat-controlled Senate seem lower, and Biden himself seems unlikely to sign it. In the event it did pass, it would run into the same legal problems Trump did — plus the ire of millions of American users.