Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis expressed his inclination towards a potential national TikTok ban if he were to be elected. This comes as bipartisan concerns regarding the security of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app continue to grow.
During an interview with The Wall Street Journal, the Florida governor stated, “I am inclined to not want TikTok in the United States. I think it’s creating a security vulnerability for us. I think they are mining a lot of data.”
However, DeSantis made it clear that he would not go as far as implementing something like the RESTRICT Act, a bipartisan legislation introduced in March to grant the federal government more authority to regulate and ban technology associated with foreign adversaries, including TikTok.
DeSantis stated, “At the end of the day, I don’t want Big Brother to be getting into everybody’s apps. It’s about vulnerabilities to our country.”
Earlier this year, the Florida governor signed a bill that prohibits the use of TikTok on government and school servers and devices in the state. This bill was part of a series of legislation aimed at “curbing the influence” of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Florida.
During a press conference in May regarding the new legislation, DeSantis stated, “We think whatever utility that these applications have is clearly outweighed by the benefit that the CCP gets from data mining and being able to collect information.”
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.