(NewsGlobal.com)- In an interview with Margaret Brennan, the anchor of CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Senator Marco Rubio called out a social media platform and said they need to be banned.
Rubio (R-FL) is renewing his efforts to prevent Americans from downloading and using China’s TikTok due to worries that it poses a significant national security risk.
Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, concurred that TikTok is a danger to the United States since it is ultimately “still answerable to the Communist Party.”
Rubio said people often ask him why we should care about what these 16-year-olds are doing on Tik Tok.
Rubio, the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Ranking Member, said he doesn’t believe the danger is that some 16-year-old enjoy videos on there (which he says are appealing because artificial intelligence makes it so.) He said the vast amount of information they gather—not on a single 16-year-old or a thousand 16-year-olds, but on millions and millions of Americans—gives them commercial advantages and may even allow them to influence public opinion in the United States during a crisis.
He worried that the platform gives them the power to steer the national conversation however they choose.
According to Senator Warner, 138 million Americans regularly use TikTok for an average of 90 minutes daily. He said that China, based in Beijing, controls the algorithms that decide what you see on TikTok. And the evidence is in how drastically different what Chinese kids see in their version of TikTo.
Warner says the Chinese version of TikTok emphasizes science and engineering.
Rubio said he would introduce new legislation this year to outlaw TikTok in the United States.
“In the end, we got to do something about it, whether it’s a ban or something else.”
Rubio said he “doesn’t know how our national security interests and the operation of TikTok in this country, as long as it’s owned by ByteDance, can coexist.”
