It's hard to get Republicans and Democrats to
work together on anything in this age of polarization, but the meteoric rise of
China-based TikTok has lawmakers scrambling
to address worries about foreign apps.
Barron's Eric Savitz and I wrote about the
Restrict Act, which now has the White House's backing. We write:
Sens. Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, and
John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, and 10 other co-sponsors, introduced the
Restrict Act during a news conference on Tuesday. Sen. Warner said it would set
rules for foreign tech firms and give the Secretary of Commerce authority to
ban certain services.
“This bill presents a systematic framework for
addressing technology-based threats to the security and safety of Americans,”
Jake Sullivan, Joe Biden’s national security adviser, said in a statement.
“This legislation would provide the U.S. government with new mechanisms to
mitigate the national security risks posed by high-risk technology businesses
operating in the United States.”
Warner listed six foreign nations: China,
Russia, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Cuba. He said the act is about more
than TikTok, the popular short-form video service owned by China-based
ByteDance, and would cover existing hardware, software, and mobile apps, as
well as artificial intelligence products and services, fintech, quantum
communications, and e-commerce.
“Both the Trump and the Biden administrations
recognize the need for a robust process in place to evaluate the threats that
are posed by foreign technology,” Thune said, noting it could lead to banning
platforms like TikTok.
If TikTok was banned, that could benefit
American social media apps like Snap's Snapchat, Meta
Platforms' Instagram, and Alphabet's YouTube.
Shares of Snap are already up 15% over the
last five days.
You can read more about the bill here.
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