US senators to introduce legislation to ban some foreign tech, including TikTok

Democratic Senator Mark Warner says two US senators are introducing a bill this week aimed at empowering the administration to "ban or prohibit" foreign technology products such as China’s TikTok.  

Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday the Chinese video-sharing and social networking service, TikTok, would be "one of the potentials" for review under the legislation, Reuters reported.   

The bill comes at a time when the US government is intensifying its campaign to ban Tik Tok under the pretext of security threat.

Various theories have been popping up in the American media worldwide about Washington’s true motive behind the ban on the popular video-sharing Chinese app.

One postulation is that the ban on TikTok serves to demonize China in furtherance of the US campaign against Beijing aimed to bring China down.

Another is that TikTok could expose sensitive user data and spread information harmful to the US despite its limited scope in comparison to the impact Google enjoys as the biggest of the five main US  tech companies, namely, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft. These companies are referred to as the Big Five.

Another postulation is that the move is part and parcel of an all-out imperialistic effort by the US to achieve worldwide hegemony.

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday voted to give President Joe Biden the power to ban TikTok and its parent, ByteDance, among other Chinese-owned businesses.

US lawmakers voted 24 to 16 to approve the measure to grant the administration new powers to ban the ByteDance-owned app that is used by more than 100 million Americans.

The American Civil Liberties Union blasted the legislation as “vague and overbroad,” and accused lawmakers of rushing the bill to a committee vote within days of its introduction without holding a hearing on the proposal.

In seeking to restrict access to a specific social media platform, the bill risks violating Americans’ First Amendment rights to free expression, the ACLU said.

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Warner said he was concerned that TikTok "can be a propaganda tool" based on the types of videos it sends to users.

He said the bill he plans to introduce "would say, in terms of foreign technology coming into America, we've got to have a systematic approach to make sure we can ban or prohibit it when necessary."

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has slammed Washington for its abuse of state power in unreasonably cracking down on businesses from other countries.

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