Sen. Rubio (R-Fla.) has been leading the charge on a TikTok ban. In 2019 he asked the US government to probe security concerns surrounding the wildly popular video-sharing app. It hasn’t won him a lot of points with his kids, he says. After he advised parents on Instagram, “if you don’t want to donate personal data to China then #DeleteTikTok today,” some followed through. Two of Rubio’s four children — then 14 and 12 — got backlash from angry, TikTok-deprived classmates.
Lydia: There are lots of ideas about addressing TikTok security concerns — but you only feel comfortable with a complete ban?
Sen. Rubio: This app is all about half-truths. It’s a smokescreen. Why is TikTok so catchy and trendy? It knows users better than the users know themselves. How does it know people so well? Because it gets so much information about people.
Meanwhile, under Chinese law companies need to do whatever the government says. If China tells the company they want data, TikTok has to do it. They have to do whatever the Chinese Communist Party wants them to do.
Lydia: What about a potential divestiture? Would that help with some security risks?
Sen. Rubio: Even if TikTok was divested from Bytedance, Chinese law doesn’t allow the algorithm to be exported. TikTok will try to confuse people, but we have multiple reports that people are saying all the data goes to China. Even if they moved all the data to Oracle, engineers in China would still need access to the algorithm and the data.
India has banned it– this is an app that operates with massive data and there are similar risks embedded in other apps like Alipay.
Lydia: Of course for lawmakers to pass something that’s not popular — especially with young voters – would be a tough call.
Sen Rubio: “Millions of Americans depend on it for their business.” The number of people making that argument is going to grow in the future. The problem is, you’re basically arguing you’ve turned over your livelihood to a foreign power – the Chinese government. People could argue for the same reasons not to interfere in Taiwan or the South China Sea.
We’re living in an incredible historic moment. We need to be willing to be judged. If we get this wrong, we’ll be condemned. We are in an era of conflict – geopolitical and diplomatic conflict. No conflict comes without a price.
We were worried about Russian ads on Facebook, but China has been running ads on TikTok during our elections.
Lydia: China already has a lot of our data. Can we do anything to mitigate that?
Sen. Rubio: Engineers in China have a digital dossier on Indian users even after India banned it. The amount of data that resides in the hands of China is enormous. Ultimately China could use this commercial advantage to put American companies out of business. I can prove to you what they’re capable of doing now – spying on journalists. The only thing missing to bombard people with more propaganda on TikTok is the Chinese government requesting they do it.
Lydia: So when would this ban actually happen? What would it look like?
Sen. Rubio: Anytime you ban something you make it more popular. The inability to monetize it is what winds it down. That’s how it’s wound down. Not that it will be blocked on a fire wall.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
