Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) is working alongside Representative Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and others in a bipartisan push to add TikTok’s parent company – ByteDance – to the foreign entity list.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, the legislators also petition to prevent the transfer of U.S. software to ByteDance, a Chinese-controlled company.
The letter said “The addition of ByteDance to the BIS Entity List would be an important step in shielding U.S. users from the worst excesses of these applications, while preventing the further development and proliferation of these security concerns. Most notably, your department took similar action with Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. (Huawei) and many of its non-U.S. affiliates in 2019.”
It continued, “This step would be instrumental in applying licensing restrictions to the export of software from the U.S. to ByteDance for its applications. If American users are not able to upgrade their app with software updates, which involves the export of U.S. software, then the operability of the applications of concern will be weakened.”
Rep. Crenshaw’s press release provides background to some brief history of the Legislative Branch attempting to quell TikTok.
“In 2023, Congress’ attempts to pass legislation to address the threat of TikTok fell short, despite reports that the social media platform allowed TikTok engineers and executives in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to access the private data of users in the U.S.” the press release states. “This followed a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing in March of 2023, where Congressman Crenshaw questioned TikTok’s CEO, Shou Chew, on data access. During this hearing, Mr. Chew effectively admitted that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, spied on American citizens.”
Rep. Crenshaw provided a statement regarding his attempt to address TikTok and Americans’ concerns.
“Unfortunately, China continues to infiltrate our private lives and poison the minds of our youth. Our threats to shut down TikTok have not stopped them from continuing to prey on the American people and collect our data,” said Rep. Crenshaw. “This is unacceptable and must be swiftly addressed. I support legislation to ban TikTok, full stop. But I am also calling on the Biden Administration to take immediate action to protect users across our nation.”
Including Reps. Crenshaw and Gottheimer, 15 Members of Congress signed the letter.
