Senate passes bill that would ban TikTok on government devices
Sen. Josh Hawley called TikTok a 'Trojan Horse' for the CCP
TikTok banned on Texas state devices amid fears over data sharing
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Wisconsin Rep. Scott Fitzgerald examine the dangers associated with TikTok on 'The Evening Edit.'
The U.S. Senate passed a bill that would ban TikTok on government devices after major security concerns were raised.
Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Rick Scott, R-Fla. and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sponsored the bill, which passed unanimously on Wednesday night.
"TikTok is a Trojan Horse for the Chinese Communist Party. It’s a major security risk to the United States, and until it is forced to sever ties with China completely, it has no place on government devices," Hawley said. "States across the U.S. are banning TikTok on government devices. It’s time for Joe Biden and the Democrats to help do the same."
During a speech at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy on Dec. 2, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that Chinese officials have broad access to TikTok, allowing them "to manipulate content, and if they want to, to use it for influence operations."
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks with reporters as he leaves the Senate floor in the Capitol on Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2021. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"All of these things are in the hands of a government that doesn’t share our values, and that has a mission that's very much at odds with what’s in the best interests of the United States. That should concern us," Wray said
TikTok app logo on the App Store is seen with TikTok logo displayed in the background in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on July 18, 2021. (Photo Ilustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
TikTok Chief Operating Officer Vanessa Pappas said that the company won't share data and that users' data is protected during a September Senate hearing.
"We will never share data, period," Pappas said.
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during the annual Central Economic Work Conference in Beijing. (Huang Jingwen/Xinhua via AP / AP Images)
TikTok is owned by the China-based ByteDance.
Fox News' Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.