Adam Savit, director of the America First Policy Institute's (AFPI) China Policy Initiative, commended Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) for introducing legislation that would ban TikTok nationwide, citing the app's ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Savit applauded the specific targeting of TikTok, as opposed to previously filed legislation that encompassed social media companies that are under the influence of any identified “problem country,” according to a statement provided to State Newswire.
“Sen. Hawley’s legislation banning TikTok nationwide is welcome news. It is crucial that TikTok is explicitly made the target of the ban, due to its unique status as a data-harvesting weapon for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),” Savit said, according to his statement.
Hawley said in a Jan. 24 tweet that TikTok “is China’s backdoor into Americans’ lives. It threatens our children’s privacy as well as their mental health. Last month Congress banned it on all government devices. Now I will introduce legislation to ban it nationwide.”
Hawley introduced the No TikTok on Government Devices Act in 2020, and reintroduced it in 2021, according to a release. The bill advanced in the Senate in December and was signed into law.
Hawley questioned TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas in September and said that TikTok “has a lot to hide. You're a walking security nightmare, and for every American who uses this app, I'm concerned.” Hawley tweeted that the executive admitted that “TikTok may well employ Chinese Communist Party members (which they do) and admits China-based employees have access to U.S. user data.”
In December, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Averting the National Threat of Internet Surveillance, Oppressive Censorship and Influence, and Algorithmic Learning by the Chinese Communist Party (ANTI-SOCIAL CCP) Act, which would call on President Joe Biden to ban social media apps that are headquartered in “countries of concern” or that share data with those countries.
Savit co-authored a brief with China Policy Initiative colleague Royce Hood outlining the security risks TikTok poses. The brief explains that it is a subsidiary of Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., which has ties to the CCP. The authors wrote that TikTok “serves as an ingenious data harvesting weapon for the CCP disguised as a social media platform and has become a dominant force in American youth culture.”
The brief referenced a study of TikTok conducted by the security research firm Internet 2.0, which found that the app “aggressively and surreptitiously collects data” from users’ devices, including a list of all other apps on the device, Wi-Fi network information (SSIDs), phone numbers and IP addresses associated with the device or SIM card. The study found that TikTok can communicate with China-based servers owned by Guizhou Baishan Cloud Technology Co., Ltd. Savit and Royce said that the only solution is to facilitate a sale of the app to an American company, or to ban the app.
Savit previously served as China program coordinator at the Center for Security Policy, and he is also the president of the Log Cabin Republicans of Washington, D.C., according to the AFPI website.
