WATCH: Rep. Mike Gallagher calls TikTok ‘digital fentanyl,’ requires nationwide ban

Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) likened TikTok to “digital fentanyl” and mentioned it needs to be banned nationwide.

"TikTok is owned by ByteDance. ByteDance is successfully managed by the CCP, so we've to ask whether or not we would like the CCP to regulate what's on the cusp of changing into essentially the most highly effective media firm in America," the Wisconsin Republican instructed NBC Meet the Press’s Chuck Todd on Sunday. "That could be very troubling, so I used to be glad to see my colleagues within the Senate go, in unanimous style, a ban on TikTok on authorities units. I feel we must always do the identical within the Home and increase that ban nationally."

Gallagher blasted the Chinese language-owned social media platform for its destructive affect on youth.

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“It’s additionally digital fentanyl within the sense that, as you allude to, it in the end goes again to the Chinese language Communist Get together,” Gallagher added. “It’s extremely addictive and harmful, and we’re seeing troubling knowledge concerning the corrosive affect of fixed social media use, notably on younger women and men right here in America.”

The Republican lawmaker additionally shared a number of considerations concerning the Chinese language authorities’s capability to entry delicate knowledge about U.S. residents.

“I’m involved about TikTok’s capability to trace your location, monitor your keystrokes, monitor what web sites you’re visiting, even if you’re not utilizing the app. I’m involved concerning the lack of transparency across the algorithm, which is addicting children,” he acknowledged. “However I feel what’s extra pernicious is the truth that since a variety of younger women and men in America more and more flip to TikTok to get information, what if they begin censoring the information, proper?”

“What if they begin tweaking the algorithm to find out what the CCP deems match to print?” Gallagher continued. “That’s extremely harmful. That’s as if, in 1958, we allowed the KGB and Pravda to purchase the New York Instances, the Chicago Tribune, and the Washington Put up. That really in all probability understates the risk. I feel it’s a multi-pronged risk we have to have a look at.”

Federal Communications Fee Commissioner Brendan Carr additionally referred to TikTok as “digital fentanyl” in November throughout a Fox News interview.

Considerations concerning safety have led the Home of Representatives to ban TikTok from all government-issued units. At the least 15 governors have additionally issued comparable bans, with Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly being the newest to affix states barring the app on state-issued units.

In December, Gallagher launched laws that might ban TikTok from working inside the US.

“It will permit for a sale to an American firm,” Gallagher mentioned. “That choice was explored through the Trump administration. Oracle explored a model of that. Microsoft in the end fell by. I feel there’s a workable answer there.”

“I’m open to having that dialogue with TikTok. And I actually need to have that dialogue with the Biden administration. I don’t suppose this needs to be a partisan difficulty,” he added. “This isn’t a partisan difficulty.”