Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., revealed on Monday that he believes former President Donald Trump was right when he sounded the alarm on TikTok and its national security implications.
“It was rare for me to say that Donald Trump was right,” Warner said during a committee hearing on worldwide threats. “But Donald Trump was right years ago when he pointed out the enormous national security concerns around TikTok, both in terms of obtaining data, but also think about the percentage – I think there are about 170 million Americans who use TikTok.”
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Warner further noted many young Americans even use the social media video app to receive news about current events. According to the senator, China’s potential to funnel propaganda through the app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, “is a huge national security issue.”
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During his presidency in 2020, Trump signed an executive order to effectively ban the app in the U.S. But the action was blocked by the courts.
However, the current presidential candidate has appeared to change his tune in 2024. “Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it,” Trump said in a Monday interview. “There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”
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The former president’s reversal comes as the House of Representatives prepares to bring a bill to the floor for a vote that would force TikTok’s owner to either sell the company or see the app banned in the U.S.
Warner expressed optimism about the bill’s fate in the Senate, if it passes the House. “It feels like this House bill has momentum,” he said.
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