TikTok commercials have hit the airwaves, showing viewers how beneficial the social media app has been. A campaign from the social media company has even urged users to call their representatives to let them know not to ban TikTok. However, Republicans are not convinced, and their effort to ban the app moves forward. Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) continues to warn Americans about the app, suggesting that TikTok's “algorithm” is dangerous.
A slew of TikTok commercials have aired on television, appealing to viewers and showing how useful TikTok has been for sharing information about numerous topics, including farming and initiatives of raising funding. The efforts however are being countered as lawmakers continue to sound the alarm on the social media app.
During an interview with CBS News' Face the Nation, Senator Rubio shared his concerns about the app, highlighting the dangers behind its algorithm.
"The reason why TikTok's so attractive: its value is it has an algorithm, a recommender engine, which is one of the best in the world. That is owned by ByteDance. Under Chinese law, ByteDance must own it. And the only way that that recommender engine works is if they have access to the data, so it doesn't matter who you sell TikTok to, where they're headquartered, it doesn't even matter where they store the data. As long as ByteDance engineers in China, have access to that data, control the algorithm, they have to have access to American data to make it work. And that's what we need to confront. That's the reality here," Senator Rubio explained.
As long as Chinese engineers control TikTok's algorithm, the app remains a danger to Americans' data pic.twitter.com/R2TrjODvgt
— Senator Marco Rubio (@SenMarcoRubio) March 10, 2024
Sharing the interview segment on social media, Senator Rubio further argued that "as long as Chinese engineers control TikTok's algorithm, the app remains a danger to Americans' data."
President Joe Biden (D) has addressed the concern, saying that he would sign a bill banning TikTok in the United States if Congress were to pass it.
