On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of twelve U.S. Senators introduced the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act. The act calls for the Commerce Department to identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, and mitigate technologies from foreign adversaries that pose "undue or unacceptable risk to national security." The bill would give the federal government the power to ban TikTok nationwide, as well as other technology platforms from hostile nations.
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., noted that the U.S. has had to fend off telecommunications equipment from China's Huawei and antivirus software from Russia's Kaspersky Lab, and that "We lack, at this moment in time, a holistic interagency whole-of-government approach."
White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan praised the bill, saying that it would prevent hostile nations from surveilling the U.S. with exploitative technology. Dozens of Republican and Democratic governors have banned TikTok on government devices, while the White House instructed federal agencies last month to delete the app from all government devices and systems within 30 days.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed a bill last week that would give President Biden the power to ban TikTok, but it is unclear when the legislation will go to the House floor. It is also unknown whether TikTok will respond to the bill.