On Wednesday, Joe Biden signed into law a bill that could lead to TikTok being banned in the U.S. if ByteDance, the app’s Chinese-owned parent company, does not sell it within a year. Lawmakers are increasingly worried that the app could pose national security concerns to the U.S. if the Chinese government were to access data collected by the app.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We've been clear about the substance of our national security concerns, and I just want
00:05to reiterate, this is not about the American people using TikTok.
00:10It is about ownership of TikTok by the People's Republic of China.
00:15And that is why we agreed with this call for divestment, because it's clear that we have
00:23to ensure that the data, the privacy of the American people is not owned by an adversarial
00:31actor that could potentially use it against us.
00:35But look, behavior and actions like this from the PRC have always been part of our conversations
00:41and our ongoing relationship with them, and I have no doubt that these things will continue
00:45to come up.
00:46This has been a longstanding position for you.
00:48I'm pretty sure you saw the president came out almost very quickly after this provision
00:53was first introduced, basically saying that he would sign this should it pass, which he
00:59obviously did.
01:00Our view is that there's some clear runway here on what TikTok should be able to do.
01:08It provides for 270 days for a qualified divestment with a potential extension for another 90.
01:17As it relates to the PRC's claims that they wouldn't allow something like this to happen,
01:21we believe that it should, and we believe that this divestment should move forward.