A bill to ban TikTok on US government devices has passed through committee

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed a bill that would prohibit U.S. federal employees from downloading the popular TikTok app on U.S. government devices, Sen. Josh Hawley, the bill’s sponsor, said in a press statement on Wednesday.

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a similar measure in August 2020. Representative Ken Buck introduced a similar bill in the House.

The app, popular with teenagers wanting to show off their dance moves, has come under fire in the United States due to concerns about its Chinese owner, ByteDance. TikTok has tried to distance itself from Beijing with mixed success.

Hawley called the company an “imminent security threat.”

“This should not be a partisan issue, and I am glad my colleagues in the Senate are coming together to counter Beijing’s secret data collection campaign,” Hawley said in a statement after the vote.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)