The government doesn't want federal employees to use TikTok at work.

According to Politico, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rick Scott of Florida have introduced legislation that would ban federal employees from using the social media app on government-issued work phones. The senators cited security as the reason why the Chinese-owned app should be banned.

“As many of our federal agencies have already recognized, TikTok is a major security risk to the United States, and it has no place on government devices,” Hawley said.

Researchers have concluded that TikTok raises security issues because it can read the data which iPhone users copy and paste onto their clipboards, Forbes reported.

“The logs clearly indicate that TikTok is reading the content of the clipboard whenever it is opened,” researchers told Forbes contributor Zak Doffman. “We can’t say for sure what TikTok is doing with the data it has read.”

Researchers added that “many apps quietly read text found in the pasteboard every time they are opened. Text left in the pasteboard could be just a shopping list, or could be something more sensitive: passwords, account numbers, etc.”

The House also passed legislation last week to ban airport workers from using TikTok on their government-issued phones, Politico reported. That bill came after the Transportation Security Administration passed a law last month to ban employees from using the video app for work.

“TikTok, like other Chinese companies, is required under Chinese law to share information with the government and its institutions,” Rep. Abigail Spanberger said. “Because it could become a tool for surveilling U.S. citizens or federal personnel, TikTok has no business being on U.S. government-issued devices.”

TikTok representatives refused to testify at a hearing last week in the Senate Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee, Politico reported. The company, however, announced that it plans to open a transparency center in California to give experts a better look at how the company tackles data privacy issues, according to Tech Crunch.

“The use of apps like TikTok by federal employees on government devices is a risk to our networks and a threat to our national security,” Sen. Scott said.

The social media app has also been criticized for unnecessary censorship, TechCrunch reported. Last year, TikTok deleted a video that criticized China’s treatment of Muslims. Singer Lizzo also called out the app moderators for removing a video of her wearing a bathing suit. According to the BBC, transgender users say that the app is removing their content for no clear reason.

Josh Hawley

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