On Sunday, Senate Intel Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) called for TikTok to be banned in the United States due to the Chinese-controlled app’s threat to national security.
Warner made the comments during an interview on ABC News’s “This Week” with host Martha Raddatz.
“National security is not simply about guns and ships and tanks anymore. It is about technology competition. It’s about who’s going to win the struggle around artificial intelligence, quantum computing, synthetic biology,” Warner said. “It’s one of the reasons why I put together a bipartisan piece of legislation, seven Democrats, seven Republicans, the president supports and I’ve got interest from the Speaker on making sure Chinese and other technology companies that pose national security risks like TikTok, that we give the Secretary of Commerce the tools to either require a divesture or frankly even ban them.”
“And just very quickly, do you think TikTok should be banned?” Raddatz asked.
“Absolutely,” Warner said. “Literally 100 million Americans are on TikTok an average of 90 minutes a day. That data is residing in China no matter what TikTok says, and the truth is TikTok can be used as a propaganda mechanism for the Communist Party of China. That I believe is a national security concern.”
“What we don’t — what we don’t — what we need though is a rules-based approach that doesn’t simply single out a single application because it was Huawei, the Chinese telecom company earlier, TikTok today. There will be other technology applications,” he added. “We need a rules-based approach that will look at this foreign-based technology from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and we’ve got to have the tools to make sure that we can take them down.”
.@MarthaRaddatz: “Do you think TikTok should be banned?”
Senate Intelligence Committee chair Mark Warner: “Absolutely…TikTok can be used as a propaganda mechanism for the Community Party of China. That, I believe, is a national security concern.” https://t.co/KNf4mVLxyB pic.twitter.com/uYviCys2y2
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) March 12, 2023
