Sen. Josh Hawley Reintroduces Bill To Ban TikTok

Missouri’s Senator Josh Hawley shared updates last week on two bills making rounds in the US Senate.

Sen. Hawley reintroduced a bill Thursday, April 15, to ban TikTok on government devices. Sen. Hawley also announced Wednesday he had also co-sponsored a bill to remove Major League Baseball’s (MLB) federal antitrust protection.

The No TikTok on Government Devices Act was originally introduced in March 2020. Sen. Hawley considers TikTok a major security risk.

“TikTok is a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party that has no place on government devices—or any American devices, for that matter. My bill is a straightforward plan to protect American government data from a hostile foreign power, which, less than a year ago, passed the Senate unanimously. TikTok has repeatedly proven itself to be a malicious actor but Joe Biden and Big Tech refuse to take the threat of Chinese espionage seriously. It’s time for Congress to act,” said Sen. Hawley in a statement on Thursday.

The measure is co-sponsored by Sens. Rick Scott (Republican – Florida), Marco Rubio (Republican – Florida) and Tom Cotton (Republican – Arkansas).

Additionally, Sen. Hawley co-sponsored a bill with two other senators that intends to strip MLB of antitrust exemption. This bill, led by Sen. Ted Cruz (Republican – Texas), comes in response to MLB’s decision to move the 2021 MLB All-Star game and draft out of Atlanta, Georgia. MLB moved the All-Star Game and MLB draft from Atlanta in response to changes to Georgia voting laws that critics have condemned as being too restrictive.

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