Can Congress Ban TikTok?

KQED's Forum

U.S. lawmakers are debating a series of proposals that would ban the deeply popular video app TikTok or otherwise curtail its reach, a week after a House panel grilled TikTok CEO Shou Chew about the platform’s perceived threat to national security and ties to the Chinese government. An outright ban would represent “uncharted territory” for the U.S. government, according to former national security official and cybersecurity expert Timothy Edgar. We talk to Edgar and New York Times reporter Sapna Maheshwari about whether Congress can legally – or practically – outlaw TikTok and how the platform's defenders are responding.

Guests:

Sapna Maheshwari, business reporter covering TikTok and emerging media, New York Times

Timothy Edgar, senior fellow in international and public affairs and professor of the practice of computer science, Brown University. He's also a former national security official under President Obama and author of "Beyond Snowden: Privacy, Mass Surveillance and the Struggle to Reform the NSA"