Walberg Backs Bipartisan Legislation to Force Break-Up of TikTok and CCP

Washington, D.C. -- Today, in an Energy & Commerce Committee markup, Congressman Tim Walberg (MI-05) voted to advance H.R. 7521, The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The bipartisan bill prevents foreign adversaries from targeting, surveilling, and manipulating Americans through apps like TikTok. If enacted, the legislation would require TikTok to divest from their Chinese Communist Party-connected parent company, ByteDance, within 180 days or face removal from all major app stores in America. 

"Intelligence officials are in complete agreement that TikTok's current relationship with the Chinese Communist Party poses a credible national security threat," said Rep. Walberg. "TikTok has repeatedly been caught lying about the CCP's access, surveillance of Americans, and manipulative behavior. This bipartisan effort narrowly targets companies controlled by foreign adversaries and establishes a framework with significant guardrails to prevent similar applications. TikTok will have the option to pursue divestment and cut ties with the CCP to continue operations. Unfortunately, through false propaganda spread on their platform today, it seems they will ultimately choose to maintain their relationship with the CCP and lie to their users. This is an all-too-familiar pattern as their CEO also lied under oath last March when I asked him about data storage. It is my hope TikTok reconsiders their strategy, and opts for the best outcome for their users by breaking up with the CCP."

Background

• On March 23, 2023, in response to Rep. Tim Walberg's questions of whether any American data was stored or accessible in China, TikTok CEO Chew stated under oath, “American data has always been stored in Virginia and Singapore in the past, and access of this is on an as-required basis by our engineers globally.”
• On May 30, 2023, Forbes reported that TikTok collected sensitive data, such as Social Security numbers and tax identification numbers, from numerous TikTok users and businesses. Shockingly, this data was stored on servers located in China and was accessible to employees of ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company.
• On June 8, 2023, Rep. Walberg led 12 colleagues demanding the Department of Justice review false statements made by TikTok CEO Chew under oath. Senator Rubio sent a similar letter.