HACKENSACK, N.J. (PIX11) – Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are waging a war against one of America’s favorite apps, TikTok.
“It’s time we gave the president the tools to fight back against TikTok’s information invasion against America’s families,” said U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, who announced Monday he is working on legislation that would give President Joe Biden authority to ban TikTok in the U.S. or force the sale of its U.S. operations to an American company if he believes TikTok’s data collection is a threat to national security.
“Let me be clear: unless TikTok immediately stops stealing our children’s and citizens’ data, I will fight to ban the use of this rogue, Chinese communist government-controlled application that has the potential to damage the lives of so many,” said Gottheimer.
Tiktok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
Michael Garaghty, New Jersey’s chief information security officer, said the Garden State sees the data collection as an ongoing threat, adding that earlier this year the state banned the app on state devices.
“We treat cybersecurity as a Homeland Security and a national security issue here,” said Garaghty.
“There’s no reason for a public phone to have TikTok on it,” said Republican State Assemblyman Greg McGuckin, who helped introduce the bill to ban TikTok on New Jersey state phones. He is glad to see the efforts have been bipartisan.
“We need to work in a bipartisan manner to address this risk,” said McGuckin. “It is a great risk to our country and the interests of our country, and I’m pleased to see it’s in bipartisan nature.”
