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ICYMI: Cotton Blocks Democrats’ Attempt to Extend TikTok Ban Deadline

Senator Tom Cotton (Photo: facebook)

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By Tom Cotton

January 17, 2025
3:26 pm
Los Angeles, CA

Reserving the right to object—which I most certainly do. TikTok isn’t just another social-media platform. TikTok is a Chinese Communist spy app that addicts our kids, harvests their data, targets them with harmful and manipulative content, and spreads communist propaganda. Congress recognized the unique dangers of TikTok when we voted on a massive bipartisan basis last April to give its Chinese Communist–influenced parent company, ByteDance, 270 days to sell TikTok to an American buyer or to be shut down in America. That deadline is Sunday. What’s more, ByteDance and TikTok had plenty of additional warning for years about the possibility of such action, long before Congress set this firm Sunday deadline. The Trump Administration in 2020 attempted to shut down TikTok. So, there was no rush as the senator

Congress recognized the unique dangers of TikTok when we voted on a massive bipartisan basis last April to give its Chinese Communist–influenced parent company, ByteDance, 270 days to sell TikTok to an American buyer or to be shut down in America. That deadline is Sunday. What’s more, ByteDance and TikTok had plenty of additional warning for years about the possibility of such action, long before Congress set this firm Sunday deadline. The Trump Administration in 2020 attempted to shut down TikTok. So, there was no rush as the senator from Massachusetts asserted.

We didn’t pull the rug out from under TikTok and we didn’t ban it. Instead, Congress simply demanded that the app could no longer be owned and controlled by our nation’s worst enemy, communist China.

In other words, TikTok’s owners had plenty of time to find a buyer. And there were plenty of willing buyers as well. Instead, TikTok whined, lied, complained, sued, and lobbied. Oh, how they lobbied. One notable lobbyist told me he was offered $100,000 a month–$100,000 a month to represent TikTok. But he refused because TikTok is a sewer of vile antisemitism. Good for him. Unfortunately, I can’t say that for the army of lawyers and lobbyists who saddled up on behalf of Communist China. They know who they are, they should be ashamed of themselves, and they should know that I for one won’t forget it.

So let me be crystal clear: there will be no extensions, no concessions, and no compromises for TikTok. ByteDance and the Chinese Communists had plenty of time to make a deal. In fact, the legislation allows the president to grant a 90-day extension to the Sunday deadline, though only if negotiations have substantially advanced and the sale could likely close in ninety days. Neither is true today, so I expect President Biden will not grant the extension.

And what President Biden can’t do under current law, this Congress—this Republican Congress—certainly won’t do by changing the law. Not over my objection, in any case.

And isn’t it telling that ByteDance says Communist China blocked the sale of TikTok for these last nine months? What exactly does that tell us? Exactly what I said earlier: TikTok is a Chinese Communist spy app.

Consider one reason why the bill passed with such a huge bipartisan vote in April, namely, the backlash against TikTok for its deranged lobbying campaign against the bill. As the bill was being considered by House Committee, TikTok sent push notifications to its users, demanding that they call into Congress and express opposition to the bill. This was not a case of American citizens spontaneously rising up to exercise their First Amendment rights, but rather a foreign power egging them on, meddling in our politics. Influencing our legislative debates. And what happened? Thousands of children—kids—called into congressional offices, some threatening to kill themselves or to assassinate members of Congress.

No foreign adversary should have that kind of power over our politics or our children. Imagine how Chinese Communists would use TikTok to influence our political debates during, say, a moment of heightened tensions over Taiwan.

And let’s examine a little more closely just what TikTok does to our country. Just last week, renowned social psychologist Jonathan Haidt wrote that “TikTok is Harming Children on an Industrial Scale.” China’s version of TikTok promotes math, science, and learning, basically telling Chinese kids to do their homework, eat their vegetables, and respect their elders—especially Chairman Xi the Chinese dictator.

In America, by contrast, TikTok promotes violence, obscenity, eating disorders, drug use, and even suicide. Internal company documents even revealed that content promoting pedophilia has long flowed right past TikTok’s supposed moderators. Without question, TikTok’s lethal algorithm has cost the lives of many American kids.

China also uses TikTok to amplify its propaganda and suppress information critical of the communist tyranny in Beijing. Compared to other platforms, TikTok suppresses content related to China’s genocide against the Uyghur people, Tibet, Taiwan, the South China Sea, Hong Kong, Tiananmen Square, and the origins of Covid, among other topics. TikTok also meddles in the politics of other countries by amplifying divisive content in, for instance, Israel, India, and of course America.

And don’t forget that TikTok harvests a vast trove of user data, including name, age, email, address, phone number, credit card number, facial features, voiceprints, keystrokes, photos, videos, and viewing habits. This data can make users susceptible to manipulation and even blackmail, not only today, but also years from now when users may have become influential persons in the military, the intelligence community, business, media and other walks of life. We’re sometimes assured that TikTok has taken security measures to prevent Chinese communists from accessing the data of American citizens—but according to whistleblower testimony and internal company materials, these protections are as airtight as a screen door.

So, the end is coming for Chinese communist controlled TikTok. Perhaps a sale can be closed by Sunday, though I seriously doubt it. Even so, that sale would have to pass legal review and guarantee that China retains no residual influence at the company or through its algorithm. No residual influence whatsoever. But one way or the other, Communist China will no longer exert this massive influence over our nation and our kids.

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Senator Cotton: I want to respond to a few points from my friend from Massachusetts, and he is my friend. I want to make an underline first off in the record because this is a notable day. Direct quotes from the senator from Massachusetts. “Listen to Donald Trump and I agree with Donald Trump” underline that in the record. I’m not sure you’re going to see that again for the next four years

But more importantly on this issue, the senator is correct that TikTok is not alone in causing harm for kids. I agree with them. Other apps can result in eating disorders or depression or mental illness. I voted for his legislation in December. I have my own online safety legislation.

The difference is that TikTok is influenced and controlled by the Chinese communist party and this bill did not just address TikTok, it addressed all foreign adversary owned apps. He raised the question of Red Note. Well guess what, if TikTok users flood directly to red note they’re going to face the same challenge there because it’s also controlled by the communist party.

Second, the senator’s made a lot about some affidavit by some intelligence community official and some case– I don’t know what it’s referring to. I do know this. I’ve been on the intelligence committee for 10 years now I’ve heard the testimony of senior leaders that TikTok poses a grave threat to our national security and our peoples well-being but also know this.

Third, you don’t need intelligence. TikTok’s own internal documents reveal the threat that it poses to Americans. The state attorneys’ generals have brought lawsuits to defend their people. Those lawsuits produced documents that show chapter and verse exactly what has done to Americans.

And finally, we keep hearing it’s only 270 days, it’s only 270 days. In 270 days, that is what will say again because it will not have been sold because Chinese communists won’t allow it to be sold because it’s not just another app. It’s not Instagram or Facebook, or X, or anything else it is a Chinese Communist spy app.

Source: Website of Tom Cotton is a United States Senator from Arkansas