Why a bill that could ban TikTok is raising privacy concerns

A bipartisan bill that aims to give the administration the power to ban apps linked to foreign adversaries, including TikTok, is raising privacy concerns across the political spectrum…

Brandon Pugh, policy director and resident senior fellow for cybersecurity and emerging threats at R Street Institute, said in an email that the “ambiguity” of the text “combined with the large discretion provided to the secretary of commerce, creates concerns that this law could be used for reasons that extend beyond simply curbing applications like TikTok.”

Pugh, however, said that acting on a measure directed at TikTok or the broader RESTRICT Act without a comprehensive data privacy and security bill “would not solve the underlying problem.”