{"id":1905350,"date":"2023-03-27T11:41:11","date_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mccarthy-says-house-will-move-forward-with-ban-of-china-owned-tiktok-after-ceos-testimony\/"},"modified":"2023-03-27T11:46:25","modified_gmt":"2023-03-27T15:46:25","slug":"mccarthy-says-house-will-move-forward-with-ban-of-china-owned-tiktok-after-ceos-testimony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mccarthy-says-house-will-move-forward-with-ban-of-china-owned-tiktok-after-ceos-testimony\/","title":{"rendered":"McCarthy Says House Will Move Forward With Ban of China-Owned TikTok After CEO\u2019s Testimony"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmccarthy-says-house-will-move-forward-with-ban-of-china-owned-tiktok-after-ceos-testimony%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1905350&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0326\/670500d4-4e48-4ee2-9219-a525ddfcb23c\/audio.mp3?length=1611693&#038;duration=134\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Sunday that his chamber would be moving forward with legislation to ban the controversial video app TikTok.<\/p>\n<p>The move was expected after testimony from Singapore-based TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi before members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday failed to convince lawmakers that TikTok had separated from its China-based parent company ByteDance and wouldn\u2019t pose a national security risk.<\/p>\n<p>At one point, when asked if ByteDance\u2019s engineers in China have access to the data of American users, Chew couldn\u2019t give a simple \u201cno\u201d assurance, and replied: \u201cIt\u2019s a complex subject.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He then said that while currently some U.S. users\u2019 data remains overseas, TikTok has launched data security efforts under the name \u201cProject Texas\u201d as it works to migrate U.S. user data to storage by Oracle Corp. in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very concerning that the CEO of TikTok can\u2019t be honest and admit what we already know to be true\u2014China has access to TikTok user data,\u201d McCarthy wrote on Twitter on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe House will be moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>TikTok has already been banned by the federal and multiple state governments from government devices in December after ByteDance admitted that some of its China-based employees had accessed TikTok data to monitor and track the physical location of journalists.<\/p>\n<p>These admissions, as well as warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies, prompted the Biden administration to demand\u00a0earlier this month that ByteDance sell its stakes in the company or face a likely nationwide ban in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday, following Chew\u2019s testimony, that the Biden administration remained concerned about TikTok\u2019s \u201cwell-established\u201d threats to national security over data security and content manipulations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are also concerned that the PRC could require ByteDance to censor certain contexts of TikTok or spread information that undermines U.S. national security.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over 150 million Americans, mostly youth, actively use the video app, while\u00a0TikTok has approximately 1 billion users worldwide.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"morearticles\"><strong>Read More<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"post_list\">\n<div class=\"article\">TikTok Opponents, Activists Square Off Amid Efforts to Ban App Over Security Risks, CCP Ties<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The White House is currently in negotiations with ByteDance over a sale, and is supporting\u00a0Sen. Mark Warner\u2019s (D-Va.) legislation called the RESTRICT Act (S. 686) for a potential ban of TikTok by the Department of Commerce. The bill also includes\u00a0other communications measures related to national security.<\/p>\n<h2>Closer to a Ban<\/h2>\n<p>The chair of the House select committee on U.S. competition with China, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), said that lawmakers were actually closer to enforcing a ban or forced sale thanks to Chew\u2019s concerning testimony.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019ve actually united Republicans and Democrats out of the concern of allowing the [Chinese Communist Party] to control the most dominant media platform in America,\u201d he told ABC \u201cThis Week\u201d co-anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTikTok did itself no favors on Thursday when CEO Shou Zi Chew gave his testimony,\u201d committee ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) wrote on Twitter. \u201cIn fact, some of the answers he gave only raised more questions about the enormous existing security risks I\u2019ve been fighting to address.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Great Translation Movement, which monitors media reports in both the English and Chinese languages for differences and disinformation campaigns, pointed out that Chew was not being transparent with Congress in his testimony.<\/p>\n<p>Chew, 40, had testified in a five-hour long session that \u201cByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the movement noted that the spokesperson for China\u2019s Ministry of Commerce had already declared in response to Biden\u2019s demand that ByteDance sell TikTok that such an action must first get approval from the CCP.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Cos logic.<\/p>\n<p>This news actually validate the concern of the congress. Tiktok also did a marvelous job of disinformation on the uninformed Tiktok users that the congress only want to bully Tiktok cos of their success. #\u5927\u7ffb\u8bd1\u8fd0\u52a8#TheGreatTranslationMovement #\u5927\u7ffb\u8b6f\u904b\u52d5 pic.twitter.com\/iqk0OGToFq<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 The Great Translation Movement \u5927\u7ffb\u8bd1\u8fd0\u52a8\u5b98\u65b9\u63a8\u53f7 (@TGTM_Official) March 27, 2023<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><p>Chew had also asserted that ByteDance \u201cis a private company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>China observers and lawmakers have repeatedly noted that so-called \u201cprivate companies\u201d in China ultimately remain under the control of the CCP, due to China\u2019s 2017 National Intelligence Law, which requires all entities and citizens to \u201csupport, assist, and co-operate with the state intelligence work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The law was a major factor driving governments around the world to place bans on Chinese telecommunications companies like Huawei and ZTE getting contracts to participate in new 5G networks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cByteDance, TikTok\u2019s Chinese parent company, is a private company, but refusing control from the Chinese government might not be a safe option for the company\u2019s China-based executives, given the government\u2019s track record of punishing the country\u2019s business executives for not toeing the party line,\u201d Yaqiu Wang, a senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, wrote in a column for The Hill.<\/p>\n<p>The movement also noted that to accompany Chew\u2019s testimony, Tiktok was pushing out disinformation to \u201cuninformed Tiktok users that the Congress only want to bully Tiktok cos [sic] of their success.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>Battle to Control\u00a0Information<\/h2>\n<p>Much of TikTok\u2019s own discussion around risks has been focused on data privacy issues, with the company saying it is already addressing further data security issues in its initiative called \u201cProject Texas,\u201d in which TikTok\u2019s U.S. user data is being migrated and contained to\u00a0Texas-based data storage.<\/p>\n<p>But the more significant concern is the utility of TikTok to be used by the CCP to influence the narratives that Americans are exposed to, Gallagher said.<\/p>\n<p>He noted that the biggest concern was over who has control over information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe key part that\u2019s missing from Project Texas\u2019 mitigation strategy is control of the algorithm. That\u2019s really what we need to address,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just exfiltrating data from an American phone, it\u2019s what they\u2019re able to push to Americans through the algorithm\u2014control our sense of reality, control the news, meddle in future elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.) agreed, saying that despite all the promises to give U.S. company Oracle in Texas the ability to access TikTok\u2019s algorithms for inspection: \u201cI still believe that the Beijing Communist government will still control and have the ability to influence what you do. So this idea, this Project Texas, is simply not acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at New York University, told \u201cReal Time With Bill Maher\u201d on Friday night that TikTok was a defense threat that \u201cshould absolutely be banned.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, imagine a brain jack inserted into the neural network of two-thirds of our youth under the age of 25, who spend more time on TikTok than every other media source combined. And then imagine how easy with would be to put your thumb on the scale of anti-American content and recognise that they would be stupid not to elegantly, insidiously, covertly, raise a generation of American civic, non-profit, military, and government leaders who, day-by-day, minute-by-minute, just feel a little [expletive] about America. If we had that tool in China, we would do the exact same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chew himself noted in his testimony that TikTok is not available to users in mainland China.<\/p>\n<p>People in China can only use a CCP-approved version of TikTok called Douyin, which is heavily censored. The CCP also maintains its great firewall to control all information people can access and engage with inside China.<\/p>\n<p>David Stilwell, retired brigadier general and former assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, told NTD\u2019s China in Focus on Friday that the situation with Douyin and TikTok was \u201ca juxtaposition of our wide-open democratic system being abused by a communist, controlling authoritiarian system.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">In this special episode, we sat down with David Stilwell. He sheds light on the #TikTok hearing, whether it\u2019s for entertainment or for #Warfare, and how to understand the #ChineseCommunistParty more broadly.https:\/\/t.co\/HvtVm0EJOP pic.twitter.com\/EdhTk2YkW3<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 China in Focus \u2013 NTD (@ChinaInFocusNTD) March 26, 2023<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><p>\u201cBeijing is angry at the U.S. for wanting to ban TikTok on national security grounds, meanwhile, TikTok is banned in China,\u201d China analyst Antonio Graceffo said on Twitter.<\/p>\n<h2>Censorship<\/h2>\n<p>While TikTok has denied it has censored information upon request by the CCP, critics of the CCP say otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>Former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, who was dropped by the league for refusing to stay silent on the CCP\u2019s human rights abuses, had his TikTok account banned for 12 days. The ban was lifted without explanation on the day of Chew\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n<p>Freedom said he had appealed the unexplained ban but was told his account would not be restored. A TikTok representative later said the ban was made in error by the company\u2019s U.S.-based moderators.<\/p>\n<p>Robert Potter, co-chief executive of Australian cybersecurity and intelligence firm Internet 2.0, said on Twitter, \u201cKanter wasn\u2019t banned because he criticized the U.S. congress\u2026. But TikTok still says it doesn\u2019t censor democratic political speech.<\/p>\n<p>Potter pointed out that TikTok has a history of lying about its capabilities. \u201cIt looks bad for TikTok because they are not being open about what they do. They keep getting caught lying.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"morearticles\"><strong>Read More<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"post_list\">\n<div class=\"article\">Twitter Source Code Leaked Online, Prompting Lawsuit to Identify Leaker<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Internet 2.0 recently released a white paper on TikTok, called \u201cIt\u2019s their word against their source code,\u201d in which researchers said they had cracked TikTok\u2019s source code and found evidence of \u201cexcessive data collection of TikTok and that the app connects to mainland China based infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe note that we put all of our research to TikTok for comment and verification. They refused to go on the record about the details of their China based infrastructure,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said on Sunday that his chamber would be moving forward with legislation to ban the controversial video app TikTok. The move was expected after testimony from Singapore-based TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi before members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday failed to convince lawmakers that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":1905351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[7008,7268,16700,3653,3663,8676,6248],"class_list":["post-1905350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-ban","tag-ceos","tag-china-owned","tag-house","tag-mccarthy","tag-testimony","tag-tiktok"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1905350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1905351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1905350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1905350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1905350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}