Senators to introduce bill to help ban or ban foreign tech, including TikTok
Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) said he plans to introduce sweeping bipartisan legislation this week that would help “ban or ban” foreign technology from entering the United States, including Chinese social media app TikTok.
Warner said Fox News Sunday Shannon Bream that he will introduce a sweeping bipartisan bill this week with Sen. John Thune (R-SD) that would create a “systems approach” to ban or ban foreign technology from entering America when needed.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) speaks to reporters. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee noted that one of the potential targets they are targeting is TikTok.
“They’re taking data from Americans, not keeping it safe, but what worries me most about TikTok is that it could be a propaganda tool. The kind of videos you see would foster ideological issues,” Warner said, while acknowledging that more than 100 million Americans use the popular 90 Minutes A Day video-sharing app.
“If you look at what TikTok shows Chinese children, which is about science and engineering, compared to what our children see, there is a drastic difference,” he added.
Warner’s bill comes after the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee voted last Wednesday (24 to 16) to approve legislation that would give President Joe Biden the power to ban the Chinese app of TikTok social media and other apps nationwide.
President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
For this bill, if it makes it through the Republican-controlled House and into the Senate, where the Democratic-controlled upper house is expected to pass a version of it, which some Democrats will more than likely contest. Then, if it were to pass Congress, President Joe Biden would still have to decide whether to sign it or veto it.
All of this comes as China-linked platforms, such as TikTok, have received a lot of attention for being an issue for Americans’ privacy and a threat to national security. Last week, the Biden White House also issued a directive that gave all government agencies 30 days to remove the Chinese social media app TikTok, which is now banned by law from all US government devices.
The Biden administration passed the directive after the legislation passed last year, giving the administration 60 days to enact the law after growing national security concerns arose over the data the app Chinese social media collects and who can access the data.
TikTok is no stranger to challenges from US officials. Many governors have announced that they will ban TikTok and other China-linked companies from being on state government devices. Additionally, in 2020, then-President Donald Trump’s administration attempted to ban TikTok, leading the Chinese social media app’s parent company to spin off the platform to a corporation. American.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.
breitbart
