US Senator Urges Biden To Ban TikTok After China Stakes Ownership In Parent Company

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2021) US Senator Marco Rubio on Monday called on President Joe Biden to ban the video sharing service TikTok in the United States after the Chinese government took an ownership stake in its parent company ByteDance.

"The Biden administration can no longer pretend that TikTok is not beholden to the Chinese Communist Party," Rubio said. "Even before today, it was clear that TikTok represented a serious threat to personal privacy and US national security. Beijing's aggressiveness makes clear that the regime sees TikTok as an extension of the party-state, and the United States needs to treat it that way.

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The Trump administration had attempted to outlaw TikTok from the United States, but was turned down by a US court. Upon assuming office, Biden dismissed Trump's appeal of the case in July.

In October 2020, Rubio also introduced legislation seeking to establish a set of data protection and censorship-related standards and restrictions that high-risk foreign software like TikTok must meet before being permitted to legally operate in the United States.

TikTok recently beat out Facebook as the most downloaded application of 2020 among social media networks, Japan's Nikkei reported.