(CNSNews.com) - The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the Biden administration has told ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owners, "to sell their stakes in the video-sharing app or face a possible U.S. ban of the app, according to people familiar with the matter."
But that doesn't alleviate the concerns of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who is among the members of Congress expressing concerns about TikTok's threat to Americans' privacy and national security:
"I don't think there's any deal -- at least I haven't seen how any deal can protect the American people from TikTok," Cotton told Fox News's Laura Ingraham on Thursday:
"No, Laura, I mean, TikTok is hoovering up all the data on their phones, their emails, their pictures, their text messages. It is also exposing our children to obscene and violent and eating disorder and body image issues before they even click on a video; and of course it's a news source for a lot of Americans.
"Just think about that. The Chinese communists now have a major news source in America. We never would've allowed Pravda, from the Soviet days, to be a major news outlet in America.
"That's why we should ban it entirely. I introduced a bill that would do that, no ifs, ands, or buts. Ban it from phones, from the app store, from the web -- that's the way to protect ourself from Chinese communist manipulation."
Cotton's bill, The SAFETY on Social Media Act, would:
-- Blacklist and sanction untrustworthy social media services such as TikTok that are controlled by adversary nations.
-- Not leave the decision to sanction the companies to the administration.
-- Force the Federal Communications Commission to remove blacklisted apps from app stores.
-- Require internet service providers to block access to the sites of those sanctioned companies.
-- Make foreign employees of sanctioned companies ineligible for most visas.
President Donald Trump wanted to ban the app in 2020 because he thought it was a national security threat.
Democrat Sen. Mark Warner, the chairman of the intelligence committee, recently said he agrees with Trump on the need to ban TikTok, as do a host of other lawmakers and governors.