“US Considers TikTok Ban as AOC Protests on the App”

US lawmakers are moving forward with plans to implement a national ban on TikTok, a social media app owned by Chinese tech company Bytedance. This comes after company chief Shou Zi Chew was grilled for five hours by a US House committee regarding national security concerns and privacy issues surrounding the app. Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez opened a TikTok account to protest against the move, stating that the speed at which the ban was being implemented was “unprecedented”. TikTok has more than 150 million users in the US, many of whom are protesting the move. The US government and opposition Republicans are accusing China of storing data of American users in their servers and allowing the Communist Party of China to access that data. Despite this, there is no bipartisan legislation yet to allow US President Joe Biden and his administration to seek a ban, but federal and several state governments have already implemented bans which do not allow installing or retaining the app on government devices.