National Security Act, 2024

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, first of all, I want to agree with my friend, the chairman of the Commerce Committee, on issues she already outlined, whether it be the need for aid for Ukraine, support for Israel, humanitarian aid for Gaza, or the necessary funding that has taken place for the Indo-Pacific, and, obviously, legislation that we all supported on fending off fentanyl.

But I want to particularly commend her for comments she has made on these technology issues. Over the last 7 years, as vice chair and now chairman of the Intelligence Committee, I spent an awful lot of time looking at what I think is one of the most significant intelligence failures of the last half century, and that was the failure we had to anticipate and disrupt Russian efforts to meddle in our elections. Since that time, though, we have seen a wide spectrum of foreign adversaries who tried to copy the Russian playbook.

But don't just take it from me. A succession of now-declassified intelligence assessments has described the ways in which foreign adversaries like Iran, like the People's Republic of China, and others are seeking to stoke social, racial, and political tensions in the United States. They are seeking to undermine confidence in our institutions and our elections systems and even to sow violence amongst Americans. The extent to which our adversaries have exploited American social media platforms is a matter of public record.

The committee I chair has held many hearings--open hearings--on the failure of U.S. social media platforms to identify the exploitation of their products by foreign intelligence services. As a Senator, along with the Senator from Washington, I have been among the leading critics of these platforms for their repeated failures to protect consumers.

While the exploitation of U.S. communication platforms by adversaries continues to be a serious issue, at the end of the day, our platforms are at least independent businesses. They do not have a vested interest in undermining our basic democratic system.

The truth is, though, I can't say the same for TikTok, the fastest growing social media platform in the United States, whose parent company ByteDance is based in the PRC. Even as U.S. social media platforms have fumbled in their response to foreign influence operations, there was never any concern that these platforms would operate at the direction of a foreign adversary. Again, I cannot say the same for TikTok.

I yield back to Senator Cantwell.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WARNER. I would like to expound a little bit on what Senator Cantwell just said. It has been made absolutely clear that a number of Chinese laws require Chinese companies and their subsidiaries to assist PRC security agencies and abide by the secret and unchallengeable government directives. The truth is, these Chinese companies, at the end of the day, don't owe their obligation to their customers or their shareholders, but they owe it to the PRC Government.

In the context of social media platforms used by nearly half of Americans, it is not hard to imagine how a platform that facilitates so much commerce, political discourse, and social debate could be covertly manipulated to serve the goals of an authoritarian regime, one with a long track record of censorship, transnational oppression, and promotion of disinformation.

In recent weeks, we have seen direct lobbying by the Chinese Government, indicating, perhaps, more than anything we will say on the floor here, how dearly Xi Jinping is invested in this product--a product, by the way, that is not even allowed to operate in the Chinese domestic market, itself.

Story after story, over the last 18 months, have exposed the extent to which TikTok had grossly misrepresented its data security and corporate governance practice, as well as its relationship with its parent company. Countless stories have refuted the claims made by TikTok executives and lobbyists that it operates independently from its controlling company ByteDance.

We have also seen documented examples of this company surveilling journalists. We have seen corresponding guidance from leading news organizations, not just here in America but across the world, advising their investigative journalists not to use TikTok. These public reports, based on revelations of current and former employees, also reveal that TikTok has allowed employees to covertly amplify content.

Unfortunately, those who suggest that the United States can address the data security and foreign influence risk of TikTok through traditional mitigation have not been following TikTok's long track record of deceit and lack of transparency.

I yield back to Senator Cantwell.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. WARNER. Mr. President, I want to commend the Senator from Washington for her leadership going through the disparate effects of TikTok versus other social media platforms.

And let's acknowledge, TikTok, I think, realized they had a problem over a year ago. So they tried to develop a response--it was something called Project Texas--to allegedly address concerns related to TikTok's handling of America's data.

However, Project Texas would still allow TikTok's algorithm, source code, and development activities to remain in China. They would remain so under ByteDance control and subject to Chinese Government exploitation.

Project Texas allows TikTok to continue to rely on engineers and back-end support from China to update its algorithm and source code needed to run TikTok in the United States.

How can they say there is not the possibility of interference? This reliance on resources based in China, again, makes it vulnerable to Chinese Government exploitation.

That is why Project Texas does not resolve the United States' national security concern about ByteDance's ownership of TikTok.

Now, let me acknowledge--and I think Senator Cantwell and I worked on a more, frankly, comprehensive approach that, in a perfect world, we might have been debating today, but we work in the world of getting things right.

So I stand firmly in support, as Senator Cantwell has, of taking action now to prevent the kind of intelligence failure we first saw back in 2016.

And, again, the chair of the Commerce Committee has indicated this is not some draconian or novel approach. For decades, we have had systems in place to examine foreign ownership of U.S. industry. We have seen even more scrutiny in instances where foreign buyers have sought to control U.S. telecom and broadcast media platforms.

Frankly, this country should have adopted a similar regulatory approach for social media--again, something that Senator Cantwell and I worked on--which has considerably more scale and barriers to entry than broadcast media had a decade ago.

But this bill is an important step in fixing that glaring gap. It goes a long way toward safeguarding our democratic systems from covert foreign influence, both in its application to TikTok and forward- looking treatment of other foreign adversary control over future online platforms.

Before I yield back, I want to make clear to all Americans: This is not an effort to take your voice away. For several months now, we have heard from constituents how much they value TikTok as a creative platform. And yesterday was the 4-year anniversary of my once-viral tuna melt video on another social media platform. I can kind of understand why TikTok has become such a cultural touchstone.

To those Americans, I would emphasize: This is not a ban of a service you appreciate.

Many Americans, particularly young Americans, are rightfully skeptical. At the end of the day, they have not seen what Congress has seen. They have not been in the classified briefings that Congress has held, which have delved more deeply into some of the threat posed by foreign-controlled TikTok. But what they have seen, beyond even this bill, is Congress's failure to enact meaningful consumer protections on Big Tech and may cynically view this as a diversion or, worse, a concession to U.S. social media platforms.

To those young Americans, I want to say: We hear your concern, and we hope that TikTok will continue under new ownership, American or otherwise.

It could be bought by a group from Britain, Canada, Brazil, France. It just needs to be no longer controlled by an adversary that is defined as an adversary in U.S. law.

And with that, I urge that we take action on this item, and, again, appreciate the great leadership of the chairman of the Commerce Committee on working with our friends in the House to bring this important legislation to the floor of the Senate.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source