TikTok Ban Is Dangerous For America - Senator Sounds Alarm

Hey ladies and gentlemen, this is Carmine Sabia for Explain America, and the TikTok ban is in the news in a big way right now

But I have a typical rule of thumb that I like to live by, which is when Republicans and Democrats overwhelmingly favor something together, it's probably bad news for us

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Republicans and Democrats have talked about, hey look, TikTok is a Chinese spy application, and they're spying on the American people

And that may be true. Look, the Chinese government has a big hand in TikTok. Let's not mince words here

But Donald Trump, he's absolutely against banning this application, and a lot of Republicans are speaking out against banning this application, and here's why

What they're saying is that this is a Trojan horse, and if you read the legislation, it does appear to be that way

It gives the government and president incredible power to ban websites, to ban applications, to ban anything that it deems to be adversarial, spreading misinformation about elections, and has foreign ownership

Fox News could fall into this category if you read the legislation. That's what Senator Rand Paul is saying

Senator Thomas Massey, another Republican, expressed similar concerns about this. They're also raising very significant First Amendment issues

They're talking about the fact that TikTok is not wholly owned by the Chinese

There is a lot of American ownership and a vast array of owners of TikTok

And so the concern here is, is TikTok being used to ban TikTok as a tool to actually ban anything the government doesn't like if they find a good enough reason that fits within the parameters of this legislation

Now, this legislation has done an outright ban on TikTok. Of course, they want the owners to divest

The owners have vowed that they would not divest. It's their property

As a capitalist, I totally understand that. Why should you have to sell your property

Because some people in Washington, D.C. said you should. Now, the danger here is really palpable

There's a significant danger here to freedom and First Amendment. Because, again, TikTok is an application young people love, even older people are starting to love

And they get to express themselves and express their First Amendment freedoms by using the application, talking about politics, talking about religion, talking about anything they want to talk about, doing silly dances, whatever they want to do

And with all this stuff happening in our country right now, is TikTok really the issue? Is TikTok really the thing that we need to be battling

I want you to listen to Senator Rand Paul here in his argument with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade about this, where he raises the concerns he has about banning TikTok and what he thinks the real issue is, what they're really trying to do

I found this interview fascinating, and if you're interested in this topic at all, you really should listen to this

Ladies and gentlemen, again, I want to thank you for joining us here at Explain America

Please remember to like, comment, share, and subscribe. If you're a young person or an older person that uses TikTok, I really want your comments on this

So, again, I'm Carmine Sabia for Explain America. We love you guys. God bless you. Take care, everybody

Maybe you have some foreign owners. I don't know if everybody's an American citizen

And then what if they say, well, Fox News is giving misinformation on the election

You have a foreign ownership. You have misinformation according to the government

And all of a sudden they say, well, we're going to shut down Fox News or we're going to shut down Twitter

So the bill isn't just about TikTok. It mentions TikTok by name, which is also a problem because laws are not allowed to target one company

But there is also a danger that it goes beyond that. So I want you to hear with the FBI. So in terms of banning it, I think national security should trump that

And it being that we're finding out that Beijing is designing this algorithm to help divide America over the hot issues that you debate every day in Congress

from race to gender and all these other things. Knowing this has been around since 2016, Gordon Chang came out and says it's like allowing 170 million spy balloons over America

And here's what the FBI director said yesterday. That kind of influence operation or the different kinds of influence operations you're describing are extraordinarily difficult to detect

which is part of what makes the national security concerns represented by by TikTok so significant

Americans need to ask themselves whether they want to give the Chinese government the ability to control access to their data

So, I mean, doesn't that concern you? Do you think you see a difference

Do you think there should be maybe a listing of nations like Russia, China, North Korea and Iran that should not be able to own entities like this

Well, here's the first thing. Here's the first thing. And this is the most important fact of all of this

And it needs to be debated, not assumed as a fact. The company is owned 60 percent by international investors, 20 percent by the two Chinese software engineers who developed it

the entrepreneurs who began the business and 20 percent by their employees, 7000 of whom are American

So it's a very diverse ownership. It's not owned by the Chinese government

In fact, on TikTok's board, there are no Chinese nationals that control this, that are associated with the government at all

They're CEOs from Singapore. So this is an international corporation. And like every other international corporation, they deserve their day in court. You can't just take their property

Look, I have a lot of arguments with the Chinese communists. I have a lot of Saudi authoritarians

But I'm not saying we should allow banning anybody to do business with the Saudis because they have an unsavory government as well

They spy on their people. Senator, did you see the hearing or were you part of that hearing

I can't remember what committee was in front of when the CEO of TikTok was there trying to rationalize why we should leave it in this country

You know, I wasn't in that hearing, but I do know that they had been working very closely with our government to try to adhere to anything they can do to stay open in our business, in our country

They've offered and actually have transferred most of their data to Texas, to an Oracle cloud

They have review of the data by Oracle to make sure it's being controlled here

They're often going through what's called CFIUS. CFIUS is a procedure where foreign-owned countries are trying to work to have American boards

They've also worked with the government to try to do that. So this is the fundamental I know about the Texas project, and I wish it was effective, but it isn't

We put a billion dollars into it, or they did. But they did. He could not assure that ByteDance..

But that's an opinion, Brian. That's your opinion. No, no. Nobody thinks the Texas project did..

Well, it is your opinion. No, but nobody thinks... Let me finish. Nobody thinks the Texas project is up and running and is effective

Well, I do. The thing is... Let me just finish. They could not answer. The CEO would not assure that Beijing would not have access to personal information for 170 million Americans

I don't think that's true. And their news feed, which is number one with young people... It is true

Even if it were true, Brian, it's an allegation. You are making allegations against a company owned by Americans, and you have to prove it in court

Who owns that company? ByteDance is owned by China. No, it's not. See, that's a lie, and you're defaming the country. You're defaming the company

60% of it is owned by international investors, 20% is owned by the software developers who are Chinese, and 20% is owned by the employees, 7,000 of whom are Americans

Who controls the algorithm? But it's not owned by the government. It's not about profits. Who owns the algorithm

TikTok owns their own algorithm, and it's actually not in China. And who owns TikTok? ByteDance? And who owns ByteDance? The Chinese government

No, they don't. See, you've just told a lie, Brian. You can't say on TV something that's a lie about a company

That is an out-and-out lie, and it's provably false. What is a lie

They're not owned by the Chinese government. TikTok is owned privately, 60% by international investors

ByteDance controls the algorithm. That's all that matters. You're talking about profits

Let me finish. Let me finish. I've been listening to you. Let me finish. Let me finish the answer

60% is owned by international investors who have made investments in this

20% is owned by the two Chinese software engineers who developed the app, and 20% by their employees

Who controls the algorithm. And 7,000 of them are Americans, and the algorithm's not in China

Everything is held outside of China. You're comfortable with TikTok influencing America, and you believe that 60% of foreign ownership controlled it

Senator, thank you so much. I'm comfortable with the Constitution. You cannot take people's property without due process

If you believe that there's a national security exemption to the Constitution

then you believe that Fox News could be shut down, that Twitter could be shut down

Senator, thank you very much