U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) speaks to the media following a categorised briefing for U.S. Senators concerning the newest unknown objects shot down by the U.S. army, on Capitol Hill in Washington, February 14, 2023.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
A brand new bipartisan invoice will empower the secretary of Commerce to take motion in opposition to know-how firms based mostly in six overseas adversary nations, which would come with China-based TikTok proprietor ByteDance, together with banning them altogether, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., mentioned in an interview Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The six nations included within the invoice are China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, Warner mentioned.
He’s set to introduce the laws with Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., at a 3 p.m. ET information convention on Tuesday, marking the newest proposal looking for to restrict the danger of the Chinese authorities influencing U.S. customers by means of the favored video-sharing app.
Last week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee handed a Republican-sponsored invoice with related objectives alongside occasion traces. Still, a number of Democrats on the committee mentioned they want to assist such a proposal, however hoped for extra time and collaboration in crafting it.
TikTok has repeatedly mentioned it doesn’t retailer U.S. person information in China and has taken steps to construct a plan to additional cut back the danger of affect from the Chinese authorities.
Warner mentioned he believes the danger that the Chinese authorities may direct TikTok to push or suppress sure messages is predicated on the potential for hurt on account of Chinese authorities entry to U.S. customers, slightly than at present identified points. But, he mentioned, the proposal would require the intelligence group to hunt to declassify as a lot as potential if the administration needs to go for a ban, to make the case to the general public for why a know-how actually is a nationwide safety danger.
“This competition with China around who dominates technology domains, that really is where the nexus of national security lies going forward,” Warner mentioned.
He acknowledged that TikTok customers will doubtless attempt to discover methods to get round a ban, ought to one come into place, like by utilizing digital non-public networks that may obscure the placement from which a person is connecting to the web. He added that the invoice wouldn’t “go after individual users.”
Warner mentioned the invoice just isn’t solely meant to handle TikTok, and slightly ought to create a “systemic approach” that stops the necessity for one-off actions.
TikTok continues to be in discussions with the Committee on Foreign Investment within the U.S., which has jurisdiction to overview nationwide safety dangers stemming from ByteDance’s 2017 acquisition of TikTok precursor Musical.ly. The firm has described an elaborate plan referred to as Project Texas meant to mitigate the opportunity of Chinese authorities affect on the app, however CFIUS should nonetheless approve the plan.
“The Biden Administration does not need additional authority from Congress to address national security concerns about TikTok: it can approve the deal negotiated with CFIUS over two years that it has spent the last six months reviewing,” TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter advised CNBC. “A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide. We hope that Congress will explore solutions to their national security concerns that won’t have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans.”
TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew, is ready to testify at a House Energy and Commerce Committee listening to on March 23.
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