Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., told Newsmax that the bill that would force ByteDance, the China-based parent company of TikTok, to sell the popular video app to a U.S. company or face a ban is “important” to protect American children from being targeted by the Chinese government.
Rodgers, who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the lower chamber “overwhelmingly” passed the legislation that would “force TikTok to make the choice as to whether or not it wants to remain controlled by ByteDance and ultimately, the Chinese Communist Party.”
“This is important legislation to protect Americans, to protect American children from the Chinese Communist Party,” Rodgers said Friday on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “TikTok is a tool that is controlled by ByteDance and, ultimately, the Chinese Communist Party and the legislation is a targeted, very specific approach to protect us from these kind of tools, these apps, these applications that are controlled by foreign adversaries that are collecting massive amounts of data and can ultimately use that as a destructive tool targeting American children.”
Rodgers recounted how TikTok blocked its 177 million American users from accessing the app on the same morning that her panel voted to pass the bill out of committee. The company prevented users in the U.S. from “even getting on to the app until they called their member of Congress.”
“We all were flooded by calls from individuals, some kids that didn’t even know what Congress is,” Rodgers said, referring to federal lawmakers. “They didn’t understand what was going on. And that was just a small taste of what TikTok is capable of doing. TikTok is collecting massive amounts of data on Americans.
“Whether it’s location data, your contacts, your search history, just massive amounts of data, and we know that this is how the CCP operates in China. How they collect data, they surveil, ultimately, to control their citizens. We cannot trust China to protect American user data or to uphold American values like freedom.”
If TikTok decides against selling to a U.S. company, the app would not be available to American users 180 days after the legislation is signed into law.
Rodgers said the “overwhelming” bipartisan vote in the House “sent a very strong message to the Senate,” which she believes now “needs to act.”
“I know that yesterday the Senate received a classified briefing and Sen. Mark Warner [D-Va.], Sen. Marco Rubio [R-Fla.] have come out in support of this legislation,” she said. “Other senators are also coming on board believing that we must take action.”
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