Six more US senators back giving Biden new powers to ban TikTok
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[March 18, 2023]
By David Shepardson and Echo Wang
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Six more U.S. senators on Friday backed bipartisan
legislation to give President Joe Biden new powers to ban Chinese-owned
video app TikTok on national security grounds as the company ramped up
efforts to make its case ahead of a hearing next week.
This month, 12 senators led by Democrat Mark Warner and Republican John
Thune unveiled legislation backed by the White House to give the
Commerce Department new powers to regulate TikTok, which has more than
100 million U.S. users.
TikTok's critics fear its U.S. user data could be passed on to China's
government by the app owned by the Chinese tech company ByteDance.
Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell told Reuters she thinks
most senators agree with the Warner-Thune bill and giving the
administration new authority to review the security issues surrounding
TikTok "is a good approach."
This week, TikTok said the Biden administration demanded that TikTok's
Chinese owners divest their stake in the app or it could face a U.S.
ban.
ByteDance confirmed this week 60% of its shares are owned by global
investors and 20% by employees. It said only 20% are owned by its
Chinese founders, although they have additional voting rights.
Biden's predecessor, Republican Donald Trump, had tried to ban TikTok in
2020 but U.S. courts blocked the attempt.
Nine Republicans and nine Democrats now sponsor the legislation, the
Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and
Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act. Separately, a source confirmed
to Reuters the Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation
after ByteDance said in December some employees improperly accessed U.S.
TikTok user data of two journalists.
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U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and
other U.S. senators unveil legislation that would allow the Biden
administration to "ban or prohibit" foreign technology products such
as the Chinese-owned video app TikTok during a news conference on
Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 7, 2023. REUTERS/Bonnie Cash
Reuters reported in December four ByteDance employees who were
involved in the incident were fired, including two in China and two
in the United States. Company officials said they were taking
additional steps to protect user data.
ByteDance employees accessed the data as part of an unsuccessful
effort to investigate leaks of company information this year, and
were aiming to identify potential connections between two
journalists.
"We have strongly condemned the actions of the individuals found to
have been involved, and they are no longer employed at ByteDance," a
ByteDance spokesperson said on Friday. "Our internal investigation
is still ongoing, and we will cooperate with any official
investigations."
Congress will get its first crack at questioning TikTok CEO Shou Zi
Chew on March 23 when he testifies before the House Energy and
Commerce Committee. He is in Washington preparing.
TikTok said content creators will come to Washington next week to
make the case why the app should not be banned. "Lawmakers in
Washington debating TikTok should hear firsthand from people whose
lives would be directly affected by their decisions," TikTok said.
TikTok said it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data
security efforts, rejects spying allegations and said "if protecting
national security is the objective, divestment doesn't solve the
problem: a change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions
on data flows or access."
(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Diane Craft and David
Gregorio)
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