The ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act Targeted Apps from China and Five Other Countries
The current wave of TikTok ban bills really kicked off late last year with the introduction of the atrocious long-named “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party Act.” That’s the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Actfor you sane folks. The legislation ultimately sputtered out and wasn’t considered in either chamber but served as a launching pad for future bills.
The bill, supported by Republican Sen Marko Rubio of Florida and Reps. Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, specifically target transactions with social media companies located in or deemed influenced by China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, North Korea or Venezuela. Crucially, that would include TikTok. In theory, the bill attempts to protect US internet users from adversarial nations using social media companies to engage in surreptitious surveillance or censorship. US officials have yet to provide any concrete evidence that the Chinese government engaged in any of this behavior through TikTok.
“The federal government has yet to take a single meaningful action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok,” Rubio said in a statement. “This isn’t about creative videos—this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children and adults every day.”
