Update: A third US state is suing TikTok for harming children “by intentionally keeping young users spending unhealthy amounts of time on the short-video sharing platform.”
There have been threats/promises of a federal TikTok ban since 2020, but little progress has been made in the past three years. The latest development is that there are now two completely separate potential laws competing for support …
One of them was looking unlikely to succeed, given concerns that ordinary US citizens could be prosecuted, while the White House is now instead backing an alternative bill.
Federal TikTok ban – the story so far
The story dates back to the summer of 2020 when the previous administration said that it was considering the possibility of banning TikTok over unspecified security concerns that data could be used by the Chinese government. Since the app uses very little personal data, the nature of these fears was not explained …
Then-president Trump insisted that Bytedance had to sell the app to an American company, or it would be banned. However, the deadline set for the sale was twice extended, before being quietly allowed to lapse.
Under the Biden administration, concerns focused instead on who controlled the recommendation algorithms. The fear here was that it could be used by the Chinese government for propaganda purposes. The White House subsequently entered into discussions with Bytedance over this.
Several states imposed their own bans, to varying degrees, leading to lawsuits. There has been no consensus on a federal ban, but back in March the Biden administration said it was done negotiating, and expected TikTok to be sold.
That led to the RESTRICT Act being put forward as a potential mechanism for banning the app. That would grant the president the power to ban not just TikTok, but any foreign app considered to be a threat to US interests. The ACLU and other civil liberties groups opposed this, suggesting that the powers were too broad, and it could see ordinary TikTok users faced with prosecution.
Second proposed law: the Guard Act
Politico reports that with support for the RESTRICT Act now significantly reduced, attention is turning to an alternative law.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo went to the Senate last Wednesday. There, she announced her support for a new bill being written by Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) — the Guard Act.
However, don’t hold your breath for this one either: The report says there are doubts about whether the Guard Act can achieve the necessary bipartisan support.
Former Trump administration advisor Clete Williams, who has been following the legislation from K Street, said that previous drafts he has seen of the legislation may not win favor with conservative Republicans.
“I’m not yet convinced, based on what I know about the Act, that it’s going to address the conservative concerns that had led to the demise of the RESTRICT Act,” he said.
There has been more progress on state-level bans, but this approach too is as yet uncertain.
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