WASHINGTON — A group of lawmakers has revived legislation to ban TikTok in the U.S. as doubts grow about the viability of an effort to keep data it collects from falling into the hands of the Chinese government.
Sens. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats, have introduced legislation that would block the popular video-sharing platform because it is controlled by China and there are fears the Beijing government could compel it to share data on U.S. users.
The fate of the legislation — similar to a measure that failed in the last Congress — is unclear as it’s likely to draw opposition from the powerful tech lobby and pits lawmakers against millions of mostly young users of the platform. But the proposal reflects an emerging consensus on Capitol Hill that something must be done as questions mount about whether efforts to wall off U.S. data from people in China can succeed.
