Manila 6th district Representative Bienvenido “Benny” Abante Jr. is advocating for a ban on TikTok and other applications from potential “foreign adversary countries” to safeguard Filipinos. Abante’s proposal, House Bill Number (HB) No. 10489, aims to regulate such applications and the app stores and Internet hosting services that provide access to them.
“With the rising tension between China and the Philippines, the government must take positive preemptive action to ensure that we protect our citizens from manipulation and misinformation campaigns using social media—from any foreign adversary country,” Abante stated on a May 23 Manila Bulletin report.
Abante emphasized that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese government. He expressed concerns over TikTok’s data collection practices, stating, “TikTok can easily transmit these data to the Chinese government.”
The legislator pointed out that several countries, including India, Australia, and the United States, have already enacted legislation to regulate or ban TikTok due to privacy and security concerns.
The proposed Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Regulation Act would prevent app stores and Internet hosting services from distributing, maintaining, or updating applications controlled by foreign adversaries. The bill empowers the President to designate countries as foreign adversaries based on national security threats.
“The primary reason why I am proposing this bill is for our country to be watchful of foreign adversary countries infiltrating our communication infrastructure and making a mockery of our cybersecurity and intelligence,” Abante explained. He stressed the need for preemptive action to protect the country from the potential dangers posed by such applications.