The Problem With Tik Tok Two: To Ban or Not To Ban??

here either.

an american will be buying it from china, shortly...

is there actually anyone (named) rumored to be in that position?

The House has voted overwhelmingly to ban TikTok if its Chinese owners don't sell it.

So now the future of the wildly popular social media platform is in the hands of the Senate.

Mark Warner chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Virginia Democrat is leading the push along with Republican Marco Rubio of Florida.

Warner spoke with All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro on Tuesday about why he thinks Chinese ownership of TikTok is a national security threat and what he wants to tell the 170 million Americans who are on the platform.

Senators from both parties say the public should get access to at least some of the sensitive information that U.S. agencies shared at a closed-door classified intelligence briefing Wednesday about the influence and reach of TikTok.

Many senators emerging from the session argued it was time to take up House-passed legislation that would force the Chinese owner of TikTok to divest or face a ban in the United States. But it's clear that any Senate action could take weeks, if not months, and the chamber is likely to put its own stamp on a bill.

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, endorsed the House bill and told reporters he backed declassifying some of the analysis communicated in the briefing, which he organized for his colleagues to discuss the impact of the video-sharing app.

"The reality is that we have that entity having that much personal data, access to, and that much potential to manipulate content on a platform that a lot of young people look to as their No. 1 news source," Warner said.

Warner noted that after the House received a similar briefing about national security concerns, a key committee approved a bill 50-0. The measure was then overwhelmingly approved by the House 352-65. But Warner said there is a need for more senators and the public to process the information, and the senators aren't likely to act as swiftly as their House counterparts, despite many echoing concerns about the issues posed by the app.

CNN News Alert:

Supreme Court says TikTok can be banned in the US, leaving its future in limbo

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that a controversial ban on TikTok may take effect this weekend, rejecting an appeal from the popular app’s owners that claimed the ban violated the First Amendment.

The court handed down an unsigned opinion and there were no noted dissents.

The decision, which followed warnings from the Biden administration that the app posed a “grave” national security threat because of its ties to China, will allow the ban to start Sunday – though it remains unclear whether the app’s 170 million American users will notice any change at all.