WASHINGTON, March 7 (Reuters) – The White House backed legislation introduced on Tuesday by a dozen senators to give the administration new powers to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok and other foreign-based technologies if they pose threats to national security.
The endorsement boosts efforts by several lawmakers to ban the popular app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and used by more than 100 million Americans.
The bill would give the Commerce Department the ability to impose restrictions up to and including banning TikTok and other technologies that pose a risk to national security, said Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who chairs the Intelligence Committee. . It also applies to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba, he said.
TikTok criticized the move, saying in a statement that any “US ban on TikTok would be a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service around the world.” world.”
The bill will require Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to identify and address foreign threats to information and communication technology products and services. Raimondo’s office declined to comment.
TikTok has come under increasing fire over fears that user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government, undermining Western security interests.
Latest Updates
See 2 more stories
The senators who introduced the legislation, led by Warner and Republican John Thune, also included Democrats Tammy Baldwin, Joe Manchin, Michael Bennet, Kirsten Gillibrand and Martin Heinrich along with Republicans Deb Fischer, Jerry Moran, Dan Sullivan, Susan Collins and Mitt Romney.
Warner said it was important the government did more to clarify what it believed to be national security risks from TikTok. “It will be incumbent on the government to show its cards on how it is a threat,” Warner said.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan praised the bipartisan bill, saying it would “strengthen our ability to address discrete risks posed by individual transactions, and systemic risks that caused by certain types of transactions involving countries concerned in the sensitive technology sector.”
[1/2] FILE PHOTO:. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo speaks during the High-Level Economic Dialogue Second Annual Meeting in Mexico City, Mexico September 12, 2022. REUTERS/Raquel Cunha/Pool
“We look forward to continuing to work with Democrats and Republicans on this bill, and urge Congress to act quickly to send it to the President’s desk,” he said in a statement.
Raimondo, in a separate statement, said that he “accepts this legislative framework for addressing these threats and protecting the safety and national security of the American people” and promised to work with the senators ” to advance this legislation through Congress.”
TikTok Chief Executive Shou Zi Chew will appear before Congress on March 23.
Senator Marco Rubio told Fox News on Tuesday that Warner’s bill doesn’t go far enough, saying it “takes steps” in the direction of restricting TikTok in the United States.
“We need to pass a bill that bans TikTok,” Rubio said. “I have the only bipartisan, bicameral bill that actually does that.”
The House Foreign Affairs Committee last week voted along party lines on a bill sponsored by Republican Representative Michael McCaul to give Biden the power to ban TikTok after President Donald Trump was blocked by the courts last week. 2020 in his efforts to ban TikTok and the messaging app WeChat in China.
Democrats opposed McCaul’s bill, saying it was rushed and needed due diligence through debate and consultation with experts. Some major bills aimed at China such as a chips funding bill took 18 months to be approved. McCaul said he thinks the full House will vote on his bill this month.
The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) of the US government, a powerful national security body, in 2020 unanimously recommended that ByteDance reject TikTok due to fears that user data could be passed on to the government. China.
TikTok and CFIUS have been negotiating for more than two years on data security requirements. TikTok has said it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts and has denied the surveillance allegations.
“The fastest and most comprehensive way to address any national security concerns about TikTok is for CFIUS to adopt the proposed agreement that we have been working with them on for nearly two years,” TikTok said in a statement. Tuesday.
Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter, Anna Driver and Leslie Adler
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
