According to the upcoming head of a new House select committee on China, the Chinese government is supplying Americans with the addictive drug TikTok.
Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin stated in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's 'Meet The Press' that he refers to TikTok as "digital fentanyl" because "it's highly addictive and destructive, and we're seeing troubling data about the corrosive impact of constant social media use, particularly on young men and women here in America" and because it "effectively goes back to the Chinese Communist Party."
Lawmaker: TikTok is 'Digital Fentanyl'
Gallagher, whom House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has selected to chair the new select committee in the incoming Congress, has stated that he believes the video app should be prohibited in the United States.
McCarthy appears to be the front-runner to become House speaker when the new session opens on Tuesday, but he does not yet have sufficient vote pledges to be chosen in the floor vote.
Chinese-owned ByteDance, the parent firm of TikTok, has been prohibited from electronic devices administered by the US House of Representatives, according to an internal memo delivered to House personnel.
Separately, the US government would prohibit TikTok on all governmental devices as part of legislation included in the $1.7 trillion omnibus measure approved last week by President Joe Biden, CNN reported.
In recent weeks, more than a dozen jurisdictions have placed their own bans on the use of TikTok on government-owned devices. In a statement, the business stated that Gallagher's remarks have "zero veracity."
TikTok has previously referred to moves to ban the application on government devices as "a political gesture that will not benefit national security goals." TikTok declined to comment on the limits proposed by the House.
Both Republicans and Democrats have called for the app's outright prohibition in the United States. The US Federal Communications Commission commissioner Brendan Carr, who is also a prominent Republican, said that India's decision to ban TikTok established the correct example.
TikTok Faces Criticisms
TikTok is presently experiencing global criticism after it was revealed that its workers inappropriately accessed the TikTok user data of two journalists and were no longer employed by the firm.
In response, TikTok stated that it was overhauling the Internal Audit and Risk Control department. In addition, the company stated that it is in the midst of constructing TikTok US Data Security (USDS) to ensure that secured TikTok US user data remains in the United States.
In response to Republican leader Gallagher, the business stated that the CPC does not control the app's algorithm, as per News18.
McCarthy also criticized the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) of the Biden administration, which aimed to strike a national security deal with ByteDance to secure the data of American customers.
TikTok, propelled to the forefront of internet culture by its viral video successes, has 80 million active monthly users in the United States and one billion active monthly users globally.
According to Telegraph via MSN, Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican, introduced bipartisan legislation to ban TikTok in December. The measure would bar any transactions from social media companies based in China and Russia or under their influence.
Since 2020, TikTok has been in talks with the United States government on a potential arrangement to address national security issues. The proposed deal under examination, according to TikTok, addresses "important issues around corporate governance, content suggestion and moderation, and data security and access."
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