This week, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., doubled down on his bill banning TikTok.
Back in February, Rubio brought back the “Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP) Act” which would “ban TikTok and other similar apps from operating in the United States.”
Rubio’s proposal “would protect Americans by blocking and prohibiting 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.”
U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, is co-sponsoring the bill.
“TikTok allows the Chinese Communist Party to access people’s private data. This is a direct threat not only to our national security interests but also to the American people. I’m proud to continue to lead the bipartisan fight in Congress to ban TikTok, as well as other social media companies that are controlled by the CCP, so long as they are under dangerous foreign ownership,” said Rubio when he introduced the bill.
“Social media platforms have become essential parts of our daily lives. Millions of Americans depend on these networks to keep in touch with loved ones, stay up to date on news, or run their small business. We cannot allow hostile governments to use our social media habits as a Trojan Horse into our networks. Make no mistake – every ‘private’ enterprise in China has direct ties and on-demand information-sharing requirements with the national government. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) potential to access TikTok user data and exploit American’s private information is an unacceptable national security risk. The company must either divest from dangerous foreign ownership, or we will take the necessary steps to protect Americans from potential foreign spying and misinformation operations. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass a bipartisan bill to address this threat and hope these efforts will spur a swift sale of the company so that Americans can continue using TikTok for personal or professional purposes,” said King.
Rubio penned a piece that ran in the New York Post this week in which he insisted that TikTok was hurting American businesses.
“[W]hile TikTok tries to appear friendly to Americans, its true purpose is to serve the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese businesses at Americans’ expense. Don’t take my word for it. Just look at the company’s new scheme to sell cheap products made in China directly to Americans through the app,” insisted Rubio. “This attempt to follow in the footsteps of Chinese fast-fashion firms…will undermine the American businesses TikTok claims to help. Who will spend $20 on a T-shirt made in America when he or she can buy a Chinese-made T-shirt for $4?…It shows that TikTok’s ‘support’ for Main Street America, including its strategic funding of small businesses suing Montana for banning the app, is anything but selfless.
“TikTok’s e-commerce foray is also problematic because it will make American consumers complicit in slavery and genocide. How do you think Chinese producers proffer their dirt-cheap prices? Some…source their goods from concentration camps in Xinjiang, where the Communist Party subjects Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups to forced labor,” Rubio added. “Add this to other incriminating discoveries, and the evidence against TikTok is overwhelming…. TikTok is lying to Americans, abusing their data, threatening America’s long-term economic interests and aiding and abetting genocide and slavery. We have to decide what’s more important, short-term gains or the long-term good of our country….
“If we don’t ban TikTok after this year’s revelations, we will do more than throw a bone to our greatest geopolitical adversary. We will broadcast the decline of American patriotism and the blunting of our leaders’ moral sense. That would be a real tragedy,” he wrote.
Rubio’s bill was sent to the U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee back in February. Six other senators, including U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., have joined King as co-sponsors.
U.S. Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., are championing the bill in the U.S. House. The bill has been before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee since Gallagher introduced it in February.
