Kelly says he is aware TikTok ban 'is controversial,' but there is 'national security risk to' app [View all]

Source: The Hill

01/12/25 4:00 PM ET


Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said Sunday he is aware that the possible TikTok ban “is controversial,” yet the app “has a national security risk to it.”

“I imagine [there’s going to] be a disruption in the service here, you know, starting on the 19th,” Kelly told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.” “I know this is controversial. I know there are folks out there that earn a living, you know, on TikTok, but it has a national security risk to it,” he added.

A law that passed Congress with expansive bipartisan support and was signed by President Biden last April requires TikTok to face a ban in the U.S. starting on Jan. 19 unless it divests from ByteDance, its Chinese-based parent company.

TikTok is currently fighting at the Supreme Court to save the platform in the U.S., but it has received a cold response from the nation’s highest court. The social platform has said that divestment is practically impossible. A former solicitor general representing TikTok, Noel Francisco, previously told the Supreme Court that the app would in effect “go dark” and that the ban clashes “with the First Amendment.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5081550-kelly-says-he-is-aware-tiktok-ban-is-controversial-yet-there-is-national-security-risk-to-app/