TikTok Spy Threat Launches Bills In California – Scoop News

TikTok It faces even more controversy with the recent introduction of new California state bills to ban the popular app from government-issued devices.

“Legislators are concerned about TikTok because it owns it ByteDancea China-based technology company,” he said Tejas Narechania is an assistant professor of law at the University of California, Berkeley. “And that’s why policymakers are worried about using TikTok, for example, to collect information about American users and sharing that information with Chinese authorities.”

TikTok, officially known as Musical.ly, is a social media app that has grown in popularity over the past few years. According to the Harvard Business School Digital Initiative website, Musical.ly has 200 million users in 2017 2022, TikTok is over 1 billion users.

This platform is designed as a “short form mobile video” application TikTok’s “About” page. The endless scrolling platform of dancing people and silly cats appeals to all ages. Lots of teenagers populate the app, but really Pew Research Center reports that 21% of TikTok users in the US are adults.

Concerned about Chinese espionage, California lawmakers introduced two laws in January. SB 74 and AB 227 would block certain social media apps on state-owned devices. Apps from countries of concern, including China’s TikTok, cannot be downloaded to any phone, computer or other state-owned device. This could include teachers’ desktops, attorneys’ phones, and more.

“Apps can collect a lot of information about you, depending on how they’re built and what permissions they’re given. They can collect information about your location, other files on your phone and devices, contacts, and more. And it is precisely this broad access that is the cause of concern for policymakers,” said Narechania.

The US Congress has already passed the “No TikTok in the Government Tools Act” In December 2022 to address cybersecurity concerns, it will go into effect on March 15.

Just this week, a dozen senators introduced another bill, the “Restricting the Exposure of Security Threats to Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act,” which would expand the federal government’s ability to enact bans when a cybersecurity threat exists.

On March 7, 2023 a The White House issued a statement reported that the new bill would “authorize the U.S. government to prevent certain foreign governments from exploiting technology services operating in the United States in ways that threaten the sensitive data of Americans and our national security.”

Before former President Donald Trump left office, he tried to block TikTok from all US phones. Trump’s executive order stated, “The United States must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security.” But Biden withdrew it when he took office.

Almost 30 US states, Along with Canada and the European Union, they have now restricted certain capabilities of TikTok.

Like California, New York currently has no proposed legislation but is considering restrictions.

“There is no TikTok ban in New York State, and even if they were on state devices, we at New York University (NYU) would not be affected,” said Zeve Sanderson, executive director of NYU’s Social Media Center. and politics. “And so we’ve seen that statewide bans come at a huge cost to the research community. When they say that government agencies can’t use TikTok, it also means that institutional researchers can’t research what’s going on on TikTok. We really have these kind of two competing values ​​that are at odds with each other,” Sanderson said.

Although these two California bills do not affect non-state employees, it is possible that ordinary citizens will be more restricted.

“If the federal government perceives a strong and widespread threat, it may be reasonable for the federal government to act, subject of course to other constraints, such as the First Amendment. But federal action can sometimes take a while, and states are sometimes more nimble. So states also want to act, especially to protect state and local interests, such as competition with local industries,” Narechania said.

Some teenagers, whose group makes up the majority of the platform’s users, feel distant from the threat.

Not all teenagers are suspicious of TikTok. They may not follow the news to understand why there is so much controversy surrounding the app, or they may not believe their privacy is at risk.

“Anyone can see what you post, not just the Chinese government, who probably don’t care. This is just basic internet security. If you stick with it, you’re good,” freshman Madeline Howard said when talking about her favorite app, TikTok.

Howard and friend Elise Latimerlo, another Carlmont freshman, agree.

“I’m not too worried about the security of TikTok because I know that if the worst happens, I can just delete my account and make sure I get out safely. It’s like any other social media. There are always risks,” Latimerlo said.