What’s Next for TikTok in the U.S. Jake Morabito on the Simon Conway Show

ALEC Communications and Technology Task Force Director Jake Morabito spoke with host Simon Conway on WHO NewsRadio 1040 about the future of Tik Tok and the policy action being taken by both federal and state policymakers.

It has fallen off the radar for a lot of people that 30 States have taken action to prohibit the use of TikTok on government devices and networks. The states of Idaho, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky have passed new legislation to that effect and Iowa’s Governor Reynolds used her existing authority in 2022 to restrict TikTok on state devices and now in the wake of the TikTok congressional hearings in Washington D.C., legislators are considering banning the platform nationwide.

The TikTok CEO, Shou Chew, at the congressional hearing pointed out that there are 150 million monthly active users in the United States for TikTok as nearly 50% of the population uses the app at least once a month. The affiliation with the Chinese parent company, ByteDance, has policymakers concerned about US national security. Federal legislation (The Restrict Act) has been introduced that could not only ban the popular social media platform, but potential subject the online activities of every U.S. citizen to increased and intrusive government surveillance.