On Thursday, two U.S. senators who introduced a bill that would give the Biden administration the authority to ban TikTok, a Chinese-owned short video app, dismissed criticisms suggesting that there are better approaches to address security concerns about various foreign-owned apps.
Senators Mark Warner, a Democrat, and John Thune, a Republican, have proposed the Restrict Act, which would empower the Commerce Department to review, block, and address a variety of transactions involving foreign information and communication technology that could potentially pose national security risks.
In a Wall Street Journal essay, Senators Mark Warner and John Thune defended their proposed Restrict Act, stating that it aims to update the president's international economic powers for the digital era, limit presidential authority, give Congress the ability to reverse certain decisions made by the president and establish a risk-based approach for dealing with foreign-adversary technology.
The Restrict Act, which has the support of the White House and 26 senators, would apply to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. However, critics have argued that the bill is overly broad and harms the civil liberties of Americans, including the 150 million U.S. TikTok users. The Republican House Financial Services Committee, tweeted last week that the Restrict Act would make the Commerce Department "a dictator over trade, sanctions, investment, cryptocurrency, and more."
Despite criticisms, the senators maintained that they are not targeting individual users or people using a virtual private network to access TikTok. They also accused TikTok of engaging in a well-funded lobbying campaign that misrepresents their bill in bad faith.
Last month, during a congressional hearing, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced tough questions about national security concerns over the ByteDance-owned app. TikTok, which did not immediately comment on Thursday's development, has denied allegations of spying and says it has spent over $1.5 billion on data security measures.
Senator Rand Paul, a Republican, recently impeded a push to hasten Senator Josh Hawley's separate proposal to prohibit TikTok, arguing that the Restrict Act, which grants the Commerce Department more authority, is not the same as banning the app. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has called for TikTok's Chinese proprietors to relinquish their interests or face a prohibition in the United States. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump's efforts to ban TikTok were halted by American courts. Democratic Representative Cori Bush, on the other hand, argued that Congress should adopt comprehensive data privacy laws rather than singling out one business for industry-wide concerns.
