Including the Chinese social media app TikTok, foreign technology entering the United States would be “banned or prohibited” by broad, bipartisan legislation, according to Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA).
Warner told Shannon Bream of Fox News Sunday that he and Senator John Thune (R-SD) will introduce a significant piece of bipartisan legislation this week that would develop a “systemic approach” to limit or prohibit foreign technology from entering the United States when it is appropriate.
TikTok is one of their prospective targets, according to the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“They are stealing data from Americans and not protecting it, but TikTok’s potential use as a propaganda tool scares me more.” Warner acknowledged that over 100 million Americans use the well-known video-sharing app for 90 minutes a day and said “the types of videos you see would promote ideological themes.”
“There’s a radical difference if you look at what TikTok offers to the Chinese kids, which is all about science and engineering, vs what American kids see,” he continued.
After passing legislation on Wednesday that would grant President Biden the authority to impose a national ban on the Chinese social media app TikTok and other apps (24 to 16), Warner’s bill follows suit.
If this bill is approved by the GOP-controlled House and advances to the Democratic-controlled Senate, that chamber would need to approve some variation of it, which some Democrats will almost certainly fight. President Joe Biden would then have to decide whether to sign it or veto it if it were to pass Congress.
All of this occurs at a time when Chinese-affiliated sites like TikTok have drawn a lot of attention for endangering American privacy and national security. The Chinese social media app TikTok is now prohibited by law from being used on any devices used by the U.S. government, and the Biden White House issued an order last week giving all government agencies 30 days to comply with the ban.
After there were rising national security worries about what information the Chinese social media app collects and who may access it, the Biden administration issued the directive, giving the administration 60 days to enact the law after it was approved last year.
TikTok is used to challenges from American government officials. Many governors have declared that TikTok and other Chinese-affiliated companies will not be allowed on state government equipment. Additionally, the government of then-President Donald Trump attempted to outlaw TikTok in 2020, which led to the parent firm of the Chinese social media app selling the platform to an American business.
