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Monday, November 21, 2022

Dem Senator: ‘Trump was right’ About Banning China’s TikTok


Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., says former President Donald Trump "was right" to go after the China-owned video-sharing app TikTok.

Fox News digital reports Warner made the comments during an appearance on Fox News Sunday, telling host Shannon Bream that the app represents a major threat to Americans' privacy. He also warned parents against allowing their children to download the app on their phones.

"Well, I think Donald Trump was right. I mean, TikTok is an enormous threat," Warner told Bream. "So, if you're a parent, and you've got a kid on TikTok, I would be very, very concerned. All of that data that your child is inputting and receiving is being stored somewhere in Beijing."

Warner is only the most recent in a series of U.S. politicians and officials to call for a crackdown on TikTok. FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr called on regulators to ban the app in the U.S., and FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that it contributes to China's status as the No. 1 thief of U.S. data in the world.


"China’s vast hacking program is the world’s largest, and they have stolen more Americans’ personal and business data than every other nation combined," Wray told lawmakers last week, adding specifically of TikTok: "[Dangers] include the possibility that the Chinese government could use it to control data collection on millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations if they so chose or to control software on millions of devices, which gives the opportunity to potentially tactically compromise personal devices."

Wray's statement came just weeks after Carr called for the U.S. to outright ban TikTok, arguing that efforts to separate its U.S.-based branch from its headquarters in China were pointless.

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