China Denies TikTok Security Threat

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On March 13, the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation that gives ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, six months to sell the TikTok app to a non-Chinese owner. A failure to comply would lead to TikTok’s ban from app stores and webhosting services in the U.S.

The U.S. lawmakers say ByteDance may be using the app to collect data on Americans and pass it on to the Chinese government. The app’s algorithms also are capable of influencing public opinion in the United States, where the platform has about 150 million users.

Today I claimed 20 minutes in opposition to the TikTok ban bill, and yielded time to several likeminded colleagues.

This bill gives the President far too much authority to determine what Americans can see and do on the internet.

This is my closing statement, before I voted No. pic.twitter.com/xMxp9bU18t

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 13, 2024

ByteDance, which spent about $21.3 million on federal lobbying trying to influence Washington decision-making, denies any connection with the Chinese government and will likely oppose the bill in court, claiming it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (freedom of speech). The legislation’s “fate in the Senate is uncertain,” as it has both supporters and opponents who raise concern the ban could be seen as an act of censorship, The Wall Street Journal reported.


“This bill is not about censorship, it’s about the inverse of censorship, which is propaganda and foreign propaganda pitting Americans against Americans,” said the legislation’s co-author Mike Gallagher, a Republican representing the state of Wisconsin.

Beijing criticized the bill, accusing the U.S. of engaging in unfair competition, disrupting businesses and “sabotaging economic and trade order in the world.”

In a comment to CNN on March 13, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said:

“In recent years, though the U.S. has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to the U.S.’ national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok.”

That is false.

There is abundant evidence directly refuting the denials by ByteDance and the Chinese government of TikTok’s ability to influence U.S. public opinion and prompt Americans to act.

For example, ByteDance recently tried stopping the U.S. bill by directing millions of American TikTok users to call their Congressional representatives’ offices and protest the potential ban. So many Americans did so that the calls overwhelmed the lawmakers’ communication lines, CyberNews reported.

“TikTok’s gross stunt proved our point,” said Ashley Hinson, a Republican representing the state of Iowa, during the March 13 debate. “What if on Election Day TikTok sent out an alert saying our elections were canceled?”