Youāve probably caught wind of the buzz surrounding our new TikTok legislation, so I want to clear the air on a few things.
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Contrary to the chatter, the bill we passed in the House doesnāt ban TikTokāyet. Weāre simply trying to get the app out from under the Communist Chinese governmentās thumb.
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No one believes in freedom more than I do; you folks know that by now. Iām willing to admit I was a bit uneasy about some of the things in this bill, but overall, Iām confident weāre on the right track.
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TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, isn't a random private company that happens to be located in China. The Chinese Communist Party controls ByteDance, making it part of China's military complex. Keeping ByteDance-owned TikTok on our phones is like allowing the CCP to peer into Americansā everyday lives, harvest our data, and brainwash our kids along the way.
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Our office phones were flooded this week with teens who were highly emotional about this move. Some even threatened suicide if we ban this thing, and if that doesnāt scare the living daylights out of you, I donāt know what will. Do we need any more proof that TikTok is a toxic force thatās destroying our children?
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Something of this magnitude with such an enormous level of influence canāt be trusted in the hands of the Chinese, Iranians, or Russians. To get it under American oversight, this bill requires ByteDance, TikTokās parent company, to sell the app within six months. If they brush us off, thatās when it will disappear from U.S. app stores and hosting services.
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To stop this fiasco from happening again, the bill also gives the president power to ask other foreign adversary-controlled apps to sell off if they pose a national security threat and have more than a million monthly users.
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But while the House really rallied around this bill, its future is on shaky ground in the Senate. If it sees the light of day on the other side, the folks over at TikTok have some big decisions to make.
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So, could TikTok be on the chopping block? Only time will tell.Ā
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All this boils down to protecting Americans, especially our children, from bad actors who donāt have our best interests in mind. Itās a responsibility I donāt take lightly, and Iām hopeful we can find our way out of this mess.
