White House offers support for US Senate bill that could lead to TikTok ban
- If it becomes law, the Commerce Department will have the power to ‘review and prohibit certain transactions between persons in the US and foreign adversaries’
- The US national security adviser says the bill offers a ‘systematic framework for addressing technology-based threats to the security and safety of Americans’
The legislation, which does not mention TikTok by name, would empower the Commerce Department to “review and prohibit certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries” that pose “undue or unacceptable risk” to national security.
Adversaries identified by the bill specifically are China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Warner said the bill would grant a “series of mitigation tools … up to and including the opportunity to ban. It’s genuinely risk based. And it is a rule-bound process, rather than the current ad hoc process.” He stressed that the legislation, if passed, would not authorise action against individual users.
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US orders TikTok be removed from all government devices within 30 days
Unlike other proposals that focus on presidential powers, the bill updates and codifies authorities granted to the Commerce Department through an executive order issued by former president Donald Trump that manages threats to information and communications technology.