A Rep. Krishnamoorthi Comments on the TikTok Prohibition for a Diverstment of the Chinese Communist Party and Byte Dance

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), the ranking member on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party who helped lead the original TikTok legislation, emphasized that the bill “is not a ban, it’s about a divestment. Byte Dance is a company that owns TikTok and is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. TikTok denied such a connection.

The bill was notcommittal on the part of Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-WA). But after the version in the foreign aid package was released, she said she supported the legislation.

During debate on the bill Saturday morning, New York’s Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he supported the package that includes the updated TikTok legislation, even though he voted against the standalone version. Meeks said he opposed the earlier standalone TikTok bill “out of concern that it would be a broad authorization that could be misused far beyond what we in Washington are currently debating, beyond just TikTok.”

But, he added, “the bill took a step in the right direction with a more realistic timeframe for a complex divesture process. Let me say for the record, that I believe this bill is about one company that additional authorities provided to the executive branch or to be interpreted narrowly.”

The U.S. App Store is a Trojan Horse: How Digital Civil Liberties Attack Facebook, Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok

“We have seen how Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government has used American weapons to kill indiscriminately, to force famine,” Castro said. It is impossible to escape what we see every day. It is a good thing that today’s technology, such as TikTok and Facebook, are all of it. We have to make a decision when we see it. Are we going to participate in that carnage or not?”

The Senate is out of session this coming week for the Passover break, which could delay action in that chamber. It’s possible for leadership to bring senators back early to vote, but that could be complicated by scheduling conflicts. It may be harder to get enough senators to pass the package after the break because some lawmakers are scheduled for delegation trips.

McCaul, a Texas Republican, stated that the app was a spy balloon in his introduction on the House floor Saturday. “It is a modern-day Trojan horse … used to surveil and exploit America’s personal information.”

Digital liberties groups have pushed back against a TikTok ban over First Amendment concerns, and because they believe that getting rid of TikTok fails to address the underlying issue of pervasive data collection. “The only solution to this pervasive ecosystem is prohibiting the collection of our data in the first place,” wrote the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group, in a post last month. “Ultimately, foreign adversaries will still be able to obtain our data from social media companies unless those companies are forbidden from collecting, retaining, and selling it, full stop.”

Adding a ban to foreign aid: Reply to Sen. Cantwell on a proposal to extend the Byte Dance divestment period

Regardless, divestment or a ban now seems almost certain. This new measure had been added to the multi-billion dollar foreign aid package. This aid has been expedited, which makes it hard for the Senate to avoid passing it.

Cantwell has endorsed this latest package, saying in a Wednesday statement, “I’m very happy that Speaker Johnson and House leaders incorporated my recommendation to extend the Byte Dance divestment period from six months to a year. There is not enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done before the divestment period is extended. I am in favor of updated legislation.