TikTok Hawks in Congress Weigh Options to Restrict App From US

A congressional push to ban TikTok from US devices is intensifying, but lawmakers appear willing to consider alternate approaches due to free speech concerns.

The popular video sharing app is coming under fire from Republicans and Democrats who say its Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. poses a national security threat. Lawmakers worry the Chinese government could gain access to Americans’ data or exercise influence through the app’s powerful algorithm.

Mark Warner (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is planning to introduce a bill in the coming weeks that would authorize the administration to restrict foreign technology companies that pose national security concerns. In addition to TikTok, Warner’s legislation would authorize restrictions on companies like Russia’s Kaspersky Labs, a cybersecurity and antivirus software company, and China’s Huawei Technologies Co., a telecommunications equipment company.

A TikTok office in Culver City, Calif., on Dec. 20, 2022.

Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

All three companies are already subject to US limits, which Warner is proposing to broaden. Congress banned TikTok from government devices last year, while Kaspersky software is banned from federally owned or subsidized systems. US sales to Huawei have been limited for several years and the Biden administration is considering cutting the company off from its US suppliers entirely.

Warner’s bill will join several other proposals to restrict TikTok, which House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said he wants to hold a vote on this month.

‘A Continuum’

In designing his legislation, Warner said it’s imperative the language can withstand legal challenges and not provide other countries with a template for retaliating against US companies.

“There’s broad bipartisan agreement” on the challenges around foreign technology and national security, Warner said. The solution “may be along a continuum—it’s not ban everything, it’s not support everything.”

In addition to giving the executive branch broader authority to deter risky technology products from foreign adversaries, the legislation would establish a process for reviewing the rapidly changing technology and threat environment, Warner’s communications director, Rachel Cohen, said.

“The U.S. government has consistently struggled to identify, and counter, threats posed by untrusted information communications and technology products,” Cohen said in an email.

Warner said he is consulting with legal experts, relevant federal agencies, and Republicans on the bill. He said he’s also interested in collaborating with McCaul.

Free Speech

While Warner would seek to impose more stringent regulations than those currently on the books, other bills that propose outright bans have faced criticism for potentially violating the First Amendment right to free speech by shutting down a method of expression without regard to content.

For example, Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) No TikTok on United States Devices Act would place a total ban on TikTok and ByteDance by directing the president to prevent the app’s commercial operation in the US, including downloads.

The bill would also require the Director of National Intelligence to report on national security threats posed by TikTok within 120 days of the bill’s enactment. That would include reporting on the Chinese government’s ability to access US users’ data via the app and use it for intelligence or military purposes.

“In terms of the intricacies of the legislation, I welcome anyone who wants to ban it and any avenue to do so,” Hawley said in an interview.

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who is sponsoring the companion to Hawley’s bill in the House, said he wants a hearing on the legislation to learn more about best approaches. “I think it’s my bill, but my bill goes pretty far — so maybe it’s something that doesn’t go as far,” he said.

Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) also are planning to reintroduce their Anti-Social CCP Act, which takes aim at the Chinese Community Party. It would direct the president to impose bans on a wider set of of social media companies. Florida Republican Marco Rubio is backing the bill in the Senate.

The prohibition would apply to social media companies owned or controlled by China, as well as those headquartered in, or owned or controlled by, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela. Companies that sustain more than 1 million monthly active users for a majority of the time within a 12-month period would be affected by the ban.

“This isn’t simply an issue of TikTok promoting one dance video over another — but of a hostile foreign adversary’s ability to control the news that Americans consume,” Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi said in a statement last week.