White House backs Senate bill to boost US ability to ban TikTok

The White House said it backed legislation introduced on Tuesday by a dozen Senators to give the administration new powers to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok and other foreign-based technologies if they pose national security threats.

The endorsement boosts efforts by a number of lawmakers to ban the popular ByteDance-owned app, which is used by more than 100 million Americans.

The bill gives the Commerce Department the ability impose restrictions up to and including banning TikTok and other technologies that pose national security risks, said Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who chairs the Intelligence Committee.

He said it would also apply to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.