This past Sunday evening, Senate Intel Chairman Mark Warner (D-VA) once again echoed the call for the wholesale ban of the Chinese-controlled TikTok app in the U.S., stating that the company poses a threat to national security.
Warner issued the remarks as part of an interview on an episode of ABC News’s “This Week” alongside hose Martha Raddatz while speaking about the communist country.
“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,” explained Warner. “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?” questioned Raddatz.
“Absolutely,” answered Warner. “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 stated. “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.”
WATCH:
.@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
TRANSCRIPT:
MARTHA RADDATZ: This week, we heard China’s President Xi level very direct criticism to the U.S., something he rarely does.
How concerned are you about our relationship with China?
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): We should be concerned. We’re in enormous competition with China. National security, we had all the intelligence leaders before our committee this week.
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.
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.
We’ve seen, for example, TikTok already banned in India. We’ve seen the Canadian government, the EU urge taking that off phones in their systems.
We’ve got this technology competition which China, and they have been stealing our intellectual property at the rate of $500 billion a year. We have to be worried.
China’s a great country. Our beef is with the communist party. It’s not with the Chinese people. But Xi Jinping, we should not underestimate both his aggressiveness and his authoritarian regime.
RADDATZ: And just very quickly, do you think TikTok should be banned?
WARNER: Absolutely. I, you know, this is a — 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.
We need a rules-based approach that will look at this foreign-based technology from China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and say —
RADDATZ: Okay, thanks, Senator.
WARNER: — we’ve got to have the tools to make sure that we can take them down.
RADDATZ: Okay. Thanks very much, Senator, for joining us this morning.
WARNER: Thank you.