Congressman Krishnamoorthi Hails Ban On TikTok For Government Devices As Step Forward, Calls For More Significant Security Measures To Counter Threat Posed By Chinese Communist Party Control Of App

WASHINGTON – In response to the passage of the omnibus government funding bill, which included a provision to ban the app TikTok from government devices, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi issued the following statement:

"Today, we succeeded in passing a federal ban on TikTok for all government devices, following in the footsteps of the Pentagon and several other government agencies, in order to better protect ourselves against machinations of the People's Republic of China. While this is a major step forward for the security of our government, it's imperative that we take additional steps to protect individual American citizens from the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party's control of TikTok. So long as TikTok remains under Beijing's direction, its capacity to track the real-world movements and online activities of Americans while potentially serving them curated propaganda poses too great of a threat to be ignored. I urge my colleagues to join us in support of this bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok unless its ownership and control are moved out of the reach of the Chinese Communist Party."

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi is the lead Democrat on the Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act) which was introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) last week. The legislation would protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting all transactions from any social media company in, or under the influence of, the People's Republic of China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, or Venezuela.