Protecting Americans from Malign Foreign Influence

As social media becomes more integral to our daily lives, the need for security to protect Americansfrom foreign adversariesonline has become increasingly prevalent. Bad actors, like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), have taken advantage of the growing U.S. footprint online by utilizing Chinese-owned apps, like TikTok, to target, surveil, and manipulate Americans.

Although TikTok executives claim that it does not share any data collected by the app, there are several Chinese laws in place thatprovide CCP officials access to all user data collected by Chinese-owned tech companies, like TikTok.This means the CCP has access to sensitive data,likethe location of every TikTok user worldwide,including theover 210 million Americans who have downloaded the app.

I've received a handful of classified security briefings regarding the data collected by apps like TikTok, and it's been made abundantly clear that the U.S. must act quickly to protect the American people from our adversaries online, whether on TikTok or any other app controlled by the CCP, Russia, Iran,Venezuela,or North Korea. I voted yes to pass the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, bipartisan legislation to prohibit U.S. app stores and web services from hosting apps controlled by U.S. foreign adversaries.

Despite deliberate fear-mongering campaigns from TikTok, this bill does not outright ban TikTok orothersocial mediaplatforms. Instead, it gives TikTok a clear choice: sever ties with their CCP-managed company or face prohibition in U.S. app storesand web-based services. This bill allows TikTok and other similar apps six months to divest from its CCP-based entity and sell the app to a buyer without ties to another authoritarian regime. The bill in no way restricts free speech orviolatesthe 1st Amendment; it regulates business conduct related to national security concerns, it does not regulate or limit the type of content being posted.

Americans' phones are being used as weapons against us, and I will not sit by and let that happen. The bipartisan support behind this bill should be a testament to the very real national security threat of apps controlled by our adversaries like the CCP. This bill is a targeted approach to address this threat and get the CCP, Iran, North Korea, and other bad actors out of the pockets of millions of Americans. I urge my colleagues in the Senate to advance it expeditiously.