TikTok Scrutiny Heightened From Both Sides After Schumer Comments

As long as TikTok is subject to the whims of the Chinese Communist Party, the popular Chinese-owned social media app will remain a national security issue, Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., told us Thursday. He said he shares concerns of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Schumer said during an interview aired Feb. 12 that Congress should consider banning TikTok in the U.S., a proposal floated by Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate. His comments “speak for themselves,” said Bennet, who met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew Tuesday. “There’s a lot of rising concern that I share about Beijing’s ability to control this huge social media platform.” As long as ByteDance owns TikTok and the parent company is subject to the “dictates” of the Chinese Communist Party, that raises “real national security concerns for me,” he said. Bennet asked Apple and Google earlier this month to remove TikTok from app stores (see 2302020051).

Members of the Senate Commerce Committee are exploring TikTok issues, Schumer said in his interview. The committee is planning to announce plans in the next week or so for oversight hearings on tech policies, Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., told us Thursday when asked about a potential U.S. ban.

TikTok hopes Congress will “explore solutions to their concerns about TikTok that won't have the effect of censoring the voices of millions of Americans,” the company said Friday. “The swiftest and most thorough way to address national security concerns is for the CFIUS [Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S.] to adopt the proposed agreement that we worked with them on for nearly two years. That plan includes layers of government and independent oversight to ensure that there are no backdoors into TikTok that could be used to access data or manipulate the platform. These measures go beyond what any peer company is doing today on security.”

Democrats have increasingly turned attention to TikTok national security issues and child safety concerns. Asked about a potential countrywide ban, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told us, “I won’t rule it out. I think it’s a danger to our country and to the people who are victims to it.” The national security issues are as much of a concern as child safety, he said: “The sooner it’s gone, the better.”

“I’m certainly willing to look at” a potential U.S. ban, said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. “I’m frankly more concerned about the impact TikTok has on our kids than I am on the national security concerns. So I worry that if we ban TikTok, something else will come along and take our kids to the same kind of platform. I’m more interested in solving” child safety issues.

“I understand there’s a strong sentiment against TikTok, but we’ve got to look at the whole landscape,” said Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., who recently took over as top Democrat on the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee. “To say it’s a complex geography is a dramatic understatement.” Hickenlooper said he spoke with his predecessor on the subcommittee, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., about what it’s going to take to secure 60 votes for comprehensive privacy legislation. Hickenlooper said the subcommittee will prioritize protecting tech sector innovation while promoting competition and strengthening privacy.

Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Angus King, I-Maine, reintroduced legislation earlier this month that would ban TikTok and similar apps from operating in the U.S. The Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party (Anti-Social CCP) Act would ban all transactions “from any social media company in, or under the influence of, China, Russia, and several other foreign countries of concern unless they fully divest of dangerous foreign ownership.”

Rubio, ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote a letter earlier this month with Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., raising concerns about Facebook employees in China, Russia, North Korea and Iran having access to user data (see 2302070035). The influence of state actors over foreign employees at U.S. tech companies is a “broad vulnerability,” Rubio told us Tuesday. But what stands apart for TikTok is that ByteDance is under direct control from the Chinese Communist Party, he said.

The number of foreign Facebook employees and contractors with data access was “surprising,” Warner told us Tuesday. He said he met with Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who with Rubio introduced a separate bill banning TikTok (see 2212270051). Gallagher is seeking Warner’s support for the proposal. Warner said Tuesday if there’s a “single area” where Congress is going to put “points on the board” on a bipartisan, bicameral basis, it’s on the tech front with China. He said he wants to see the results from a national security review of the company from DOJ and CFIUS before making a decision on a potential ban (see 2212200074).

DOJ Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco warned Thursday against using TikTok: “I don’t use TikTok and I would not advise anybody to do so because of these [national security] concerns,” she said during a Chatham House event in London. Outgoing FTC Commissioner Christine Wilson drew attention Thursday to vulnerabilities for children using the app. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr continues to highlight concerns about the app. He tweeted a bipartisan letter from Blumenthal and Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., asking Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to conclude CFIUS’ national security review and “impose strict structural restrictions” between TikTok and ByteDance, including the potential separation of the companies. CFIUS shouldn’t sign off on a deal without confirmation that the Chinese government can’t spy on U.S. TikTok users, they said.