There are a growing number of proposals in Congress to limit or ban the use of the hugely popular social media app TikTok in the United States. 

What You Need To Know

  • There are a growing number of proposals in Congress to limit or ban the use of the hugely popular social media app TikTok in the United States

  • One Florida lawmaker is behind legislation that essentially would prohibit the use of TikTok on devices owned by colleges and universities

  • One cybersecurity expert told Spectrum News that plenty of U.S.-owned companies gather the data of users just like TikTok, and plenty of U.S. companies are potentially vulnerable to China, but TikTok has become a "high visibility target for politicians"
  • TikTok's CEO is expected to testify at a hearing on Capitol Hill in March

Some lawmakers have expressed concern about the popular app due to parent company Bytedance's ties to the Chinese government. Late last year, President Joe Biden signed a bill that to ban TikTok on federal devices, and a number of state governments have done the same. Still, Republican lawmakers want to go further.

"This is a Chinese spyware app," Waltz alleged, charging that TikTok is "collecting your biometrics, your fingerprints, your eye scans, your passwords."

The bill Waltz is backing, known as the Terminate TikTok on Campus Act of 2023, would ban federal funding going to any colleges or universities that do not prohibit the app on computers and other devices they own. 

"A lot of sensitive research is done in a number of these education institutions," he said. "A lot of military and NASA research is done. So knowing where all of these folks are located, knowing all of their personal information."

Spectrum News has reached out to TikTok for comment on the legislation but did not hear back at time of publication.

One cybersecurity expert told Spectrum News that plenty of U.S.-owned companies gather the data of users just like TikTok, and plenty of U.S. companies are potentially vulnerable to China, but the popular app has become a "high-visibility target for politicians."

"Every single company that does business with China could theoretically have their information shared with the national security service of China," said Scott White, a cybersecurity professor at George Washington University. "I think just picking TikTok is also a little bit too political for me."

Another expert says there is a key difference. 

"Most of that stuff that Facebook and Instagram, those others are collecting for marketing purposes, they want to sell you something," said Charles Brooks, a cybersecurity professor at Georgetown University. "The difference here is that the Communist Party of China doesn't want to sell you something they want to take from you. They want to take your networks, your contacts, your data and use it for their own purposes."

TikTok's CEO is expected to testify at a hearing on Capitol Hill in March.