![]() This followed a June 17 BuzzFeed News report, which found that ByteDance employees can and do gain access to US TikTok users' data in some situations. Just last month, the chief administrative officer for the US House of Representatives warned lawmakers against installing TikTok due to the data it can collect. The US was later reportedly investigating whether strong winds had blown the balloon off course after it took off from China’s Hainan Island and ultimately entered US airspace.The US military banned its members from using TikTok on government devices or at all in late 2019 and early 2020, as did the Transportation Security Administration and some other federal agencies. ![]() Though not directly related to TikTok, US fears about Chinese government surveillance reached a fever pitch after American fighter jets shot down a China-owned spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February. The Republican congresswoman called TikTok an “immediate threat” and said it deserved to get banned in the US. “At the end of the day, TikTok is owned by a Chinese company … and by Chinese law, that company has to be willing to turn over data.”Īppearing separately on CNN’s State of the Union, Washington congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers – who is chairperson of the House’s energy and commerce committee – argued that TikTok could not be trusted despite Chew’s testimony. “While I appreciated Mr Chew’s testimony, he just couldn’t answer the basic questions,” Warner said. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Warner on Sunday said he was not impressed with Chew’s performance in front of lawmakers. “Let me state this unequivocally: ByteDance is not an agent of China or any other country,” Chew said during the occasionally testy session, at which he also tried to assuage concerns about how the platform affects the mental health of its youngest users. ![]() As he testified, Chew defended TikTok’s relationship with China, saying the country’s rulers had never asked for user information and that the platform wouldn’t comply with such a request. Warner’s remarks on Sunday came three days after TikTok’s chief executive officer, Shou Zi Chew, spent five hours publicly answering questions from members of the US House. Republicans hold a slight numerical edge in the House of Representatives. Democrats and the independents who caucus with them have a 51-49 advantage in the Senate where the Restrict Act has drawn support from both sides of the political aisle. The commerce department could then move to ban those technologies or seek to force their sale, depending on any review’s findings.Īs with all such bills, the proposal would need approval from both congressional chambers as well as the president’s signature to become law. But one of the other responses from Capitol Hill has been for Warner and the Republican South Dakota senator John Thune to draft and rally support for what is known as the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Act.Īlso known as the Restrict Act, the measure would authorize the White House – through the commerce department – to review technologies which arrive from abroad. Some lawmakers have advocated for a blanket ban of TikTok, which is headquartered in San Jose. The Chinese firm ByteDance owns TikTok, and Warner said laws in China require the owner company to make user data accessible to the country’s ruling Communist party. TikTok has drawn close congressional scrutiny because the data of users could be available to the government of China. ![]() Without saying whether Biden’s administration would push for these steps to be taken against TikTok, Warner added: “We give the secretary of commerce the tools to ban, to force a sale.” “I think the White House is very in favor of this bill,” said Warner, chair of the Senate select committee on intelligence.
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