(UnitedHeadlines.com) – During a March 11 committee hearing on worldwide threats, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman and Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner stated that former President Donald Trump was right to sound the alarm about the national security implications of TikTok.
Warner said it is “rare” for him to say “Trump was right.” However, he said that Trump was right to point out the national security concerns surrounding TikTok, which about 170 million Americans use.
Warner called it “a huge national security issue” that China has the ability to funnel propaganda through the app, which the Chinese company ByteDance owns.
In 2020, Trump signed an executive order effectively banning the app in the U.S. However, the courts blocked the executive action.
Despite his executive action, Trump said on March 11 that some people would “go crazy” without TikTok. He also said that while he believes that the app poses a national security risk, he opposes banning TikTok because banning the app would benefit Facebook. Trump said he considers Facebook “an enemy of the people,” adding that it has “been very bad for our country,” especially regarding elections.
Even without Trump’s support, on March 13, the House passed a bill that would ban TikTok in the United States if ByteDance does not sell TikTok and other applications it owns within six months after the bill goes into effect. The legislation also creates a process allowing the executive branch to ban access to other apps that could threaten national security.
Warner expressed optimism about its fate in the Senate, where it will require the support of at least 60 senators to pass in order to be signed into law by President Joe Biden, who has also stated he supports the legislation.
Due to security concerns, Congress voted to ban TikTok on government devices due to concerns over national security in December 2022. Half of the states in the United States already have some form of a ban for TikTok on government devices.
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