Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) Chairman Mark Warner is very concerned about the U.S. government inability to control, restrict and censor the information within the TikTok social media platform.
As outlined in this Face the Nation interview with Margaret Brennan, Chairman Warner states it is very alarming that China may permit content that is against the interests of the U.S. government to control it. Additionally, by law, the Chinese platform “has to be willing to turn over data to the Communist Party“.
Now, if you find yourself thinking, how is this different from U.S. laws that force Twitter, Facebook, Apple or Google to turn over user data to the DOJ/FBI, well, you are probably too smart for this regime narrative and should officially consider yourself a dissident American intellectual. Just sayin’.
The bottom line is very simple when you look at TikTok from the position of the U.S. surveillance state. The Dept of Homeland Security can only monitor TikTok content, they cannot do anything to modify, remove, censor or control the content, as a result TikTok exists as an existential threat. WATCH:
[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic Chairman of the Intelligence Committee. He joins us from King George Virginia. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. MARK WARNER: Good morning Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: It was a pretty intense five hours of questioning of Tiktok CEO this past week. Your bipartisan bill has White House support, and it would deal with Tiktok by giving the Commerce Department power to review and potentially ban technology flagged by US intelligence as a credible threat. Will it pass in a divided Congress?
SEN. WARNER: Well, Margaret, will – we’re now up to 22 Senators. 11 Democrats. 11 Republicans. We’ve had strong interest from the House. I think they wanted to get through their hearing. And clearly while I appreciated Mr. Chew’s testimony, he just couldn’t answer the basic question. At the end of the day, Tiktok is owned by a Chinese company Bytedance. And by Chinese law, that company has to be willing to turn over data to the Communist Party. Or one of my bigger fears, we got 150 million Americans on Tiktok average of about 90 minutes a day, and how that channel could be used for propaganda purposes –
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right.
SEN. WARNER: -or disinformation, advocated by the Communist Party.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But has the White House made clear to you that they want this bill to pass and do intend to ban it? Or is a forced sale more likely?
SEN. WARNER: Well, I think the White House is very in favor of this bill. And clearly this is not just a phenomenon in America. We’ve seen Canada act. We’ve seen the UK act. Matter of fact, the Dutch said, if you’re a media person, please get off TikTok, the Chinese are spying on you. India’s already banned the bill- banned it outright. We give the Secretary of Commerce the tools to ban, to force a sale, other tools. And end of the day, one of the things that may lead to a ban is the Chinese Communist Party has said they felt like the algorithm, the source code that resides in Beijing, is so important that they’d rather see a ban than give that source code up to be placed in a third country, which again, I think speaks volumes about the potential threat that this application poses.
MARGARET BRENNAN
Well, the Commerce Secretary though recently said that the politician in her thinks a ban will mean losing every voter under 35. Forever. And if you look at use of Tiktok I mean, just last week, President Biden showed up and celebrity videos on Tiktok from the White House. Plenty of lawmakers, including your Democratic colleagues, Senator Cory Booker use it. A number of House progressives use it, given how important this platform is to Democrats, can you actually get TikTok taken care of before 2024 when you might need it for political outreach?
SEN. WARNER: Margaret, I think there’s a lot of creative activity that goes on on Tiktok, but I absolutely believe that the market- if TikTok goes away, the market will provide another platform and at the end of the day, that could be an American company. It could be a Brazilian company, it could be an Indian company. All those companies–
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: Right, but the Commerce Secretary is saying there’s a political cost if it goes away–
SEN. WARNER: –operate within a set of rules that–
MARGARET BRENNAN: and that’s what she fears.
SEN. WARNER: I think –
MARGARET BRENNAN: And you’re empowering her.
SEN. WARNER: Listen, I have met- I have met with Gina Raimondo on this issue. I think she will make very clear that she believes TikTok is a threat as well. And listen, if at the end of the day, you could end up with a forced sale. And that forced sale also makes sure that the core algorithm, the source code resides someplace different than China, that could be a outcome that would be successful as well. At the end of the day, you cannot have American data collected. Nor can you have the ability for the Communist Party to use TikTok as a propaganda tool.
MARGARET BRENNAN
60% of the company is owned by other investors, including US firms. So is this a policy that you really need to address with Americans to stop them from investing in companies like this?
SEN. WARNER: Well, that’s one of the reasons why I think our approach – the RESTRICT Act says – rather than dealing with Tiktok in a one off fashion, or a few years back, it was Huawei, the Chinese telecom provider or years earlier, the Russian software company Kaspersky. We need to have a set of tools, rules-based so they can stand up in court, Tiktok would still did get his day in court, even under our law that says, if there’s a foreign technology from a place like China and Russia, and it poses a national security threat, and one of the things we also require is that the intelligence community has to declassify as much of this information as possible. So it’s not simply like, hey, trust the government, we got to make the case. And I do think at the end of the day, if it ends up with a ban, there will be other platforms for the literally millions of influencers and folks who like this kind of video platform, they’ll still be able to get it.
MARGARET BRENNAN
Very quickly. They’re a number of Republican lawmakers who plan to meet with Taiwan’s president when she is here on US soil. Are any Democrats, will you?
SEN. WARNER
You know, I I’m not sure when the president of Taiwan is coming to the United States –
(CROSSTALK)
MARGARET BRENNAN: -they announced March 30 and again in April.
SEN. WARNER: Okay, I’m not sure. Well, if there- if there’s an invitation made to me and other Democrats, listen, I would like to have that meeting as well. I think protecting and ensuring the security of Taiwan is in America’s national interest.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you, since you sit on the Senate Banking Committee about this rolling turmoil that we are in. You are one of 16 Democrats who voted in 2018 to change those Dodd Frank banking regulations regarding the mid-size banks, which obviously has been scrutinized, because that size bank is where we have seen recent issues. I know you’ve defended the vote in recent days. Do you think there needs to be more regulation of mid-size banks, now?
SEN. WARNER: Well, Margaret, Tuesday, we’re going to start getting the facts at the Senate Banking Committee. And if it ends up that a stress test that would have been applied to these mid-size banks would have spotted this, of course, I’d add additional regulation. I think, though, what it appears to me is two things happened. One, basic banking regulation. If this has been only a $5 billion bank, not a $200 billion bank, should have spotted the fact that this management, and the regulators missed basic banking 101, the interest rate mismatch. And two: one of the things that I think we also have to look at is this was the first time we’ve had an internet-based run. There was literally $42 billion taken out of this bank in six hours. That’s the equivalent of 25 cents on the dollar. And I’d like to know why some of the venture capitalists spurred this run in the first place.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Interesting topic. I want to ask you, though, as well, about your relationship with SVB bank, and political donations. USA Today had a great big list of all of the entities SVB’s political action committee or CEO had donated to. It’s the DNC. It’s President Biden’s 2020 campaign. Senator Schumer says he’s going to give back the money he received or donate it. Representatives Maxine Waters, Ro Khanna have returned the donations. You received $21,600 from their political action committee, nearly six grand from its CEO. Do you feel any pressure to give those funds away? Is there a point to it?
SEN. WARNER: Well, first of all, Margaret, campaign contributions have never affected my policy choices. They never have, and they never will. We’re going to hear the facts on Tuesday. And if there’s malfeasance at the bank, of course, I’m gonna give the money back.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. Senator, before I let you go, I want to just follow up on what you shared with us when we spoke back in January, when you were very frustrated that the administration wasn’t sharing more information about the classified materials improperly held by the current president when he was out of office and the former president. You’ve been briefed. Any more clarity on this? Any further information?
SEN. WARNER: We need more information about these documents. And more importantly, we need to make sure that what the intel community has done to mitigate the harm. And we’re still in conversations with the Justice Department, the administration’s position does not- does not pass the smell test. We’ve got a job not to go into the legal ramifications, but to make sure that the intelligence community has done what’s right. And we’ve got some additional tools, we can restrict some of the spending. We’re in active conversations with the Justice Department. But we’ve got to get those documents
MARGARET BRENNAN: Specific to what just happened this week in Syria, with the Iranian-aligned groups attack on U.S. presence there. Are you satisfied with the amount of information that’s being shared? What is going on? And should there be a more robust response from the Biden administration to stop these kind of attacks?
SEN. WARNER: Well, we’ve got a few thousand troops there in Syria and Iraq. I’ve been briefed by the intel community. Protecting, frankly, the Kurds who are finishing wiping out the remnants of the ISIS forces, and, frankly, helping guard some of the ISIS prisoners. It has been a dangerous area, but I think the administration’s response has been appropriate. So far.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Some of your Republican colleagues have publicly complained, though, that the attack that was fatal Thursday morning wasn’t briefed to Congress until Thursday night. Does that concern you? I mean, Iran was a key topic being discussed on the Senate floor that day.
SEN. WARNER: We have no illusions about the malicious nature of the Iranian regime, and how they help these groups in Syria, Iraq, and frankly, across the whole region. But in this case I do think the administration briefed us in an appropriate way. And I think the response to the missile fire, or the drone attack from one of these Iranian-sponsored groups. That’s a dangerous part of the world. But our troops are doing something that’s terribly important in terms of making sure that we eliminate the final vestiges of ISIS.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, Senator Warner, thank you for your time today. Face the Nation will be back in a minute. Stay with us. [Transcript End]
Senator Warner is correct, an example is World War Reddit (Ukraine). Creating the background narrative for World War Reddit is more complicated if TikTok users are showcasing the theatrics of it….
https://twitter.com/Travis_in_Flint/status/1639995034610151425
Warner is the perfect example of the United States Congress being the enemy of this nation…
The Senate Select Committee is the realm of traitors…
They do not have the best interests of this nation as their operative intent…
They are thieves…they are liars…and they are traitors…
Besides buck tooth look at schuemer…
Ever seen a pos that reeks worse than schuemer?
Or however one spells its name…
Mark Warner doesn’t give one shit about us.
This is all theatre.
They all despise us and consider us toothless bumpkins…….
F**k Mark Warner and the horse he rode in on.
Complete scumbag .
Aye, him and several thousand others.
Just shut it down. Be arbitrary about and be done with it.
Liars run this nation…
Be like President Trump.
New Documents Expose Government Censorship Efforts At Facebook And WhatsApp
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-documents-expose-government-censorship-efforts-facebook-and-whatsapp
‘The Real Question Is How Many’: James O’Keefe Suggests He Has Multiple Insiders In Manhattan DA Case Against Trump
James O’Keefe, the founder and former head of undercover reporting and whistleblower organization Project Veritas, has suggested that he has multiple insiders in the Manhattan DA’s case against former President Donald Trump – either on the grand jury, or otherwise familiar with (or involved in) the case.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/real-question-how-many-james-okeefe-suggests-he-has-multiple-insiders-manhattan-da-case
The United States Congressmen/Women have been selling us out for at least forty years…they deserve no respect from you…they are millionaires at your expense…
China has bought them and they are compromised…they will stay bought…
Our Congress is compromised.. …our legislature is compromised…our executive branch is populated by the Obama Admin…worse than compromised…
Judicial Branch? The judicial branch won’t even secure elections…
Totally useless…worse than useless…
A win for the left is the worst case scenario…if the left wins our republic fails…
If “our democracy” wins we all fail…..
“our democracy” is the downfall of this nation
But there is a solution.
One wonders if it’s spying on Americans which politicians are worried about with TikTok.
Or if it’s spying on the spying of Americans which concerns government actors?
Used to be Americans were able to choose their media and its content and discern whether propaganda or not.
Why has that changed?
When did USA become the communists that restrict freedom of the press, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of assembly and the peaceful transition of power via fair elections? When did WE become the “bad” guys we’ve supposedly been fighting against since WWII?
And is there a Constitutional remedy for the enemy combatants who install themselves to power against the will of the American people? If so, what is it?
How about maybe with Deep State CIA murder of JFK?
The word freedom really sucks. If treason is what they are chasing then make that known.
And we are talking here about the same DemocRAT Mark Warner and that RINO Richard Burr that led the cover-up of the Coup that was attempted by the DemocRATS and RINOS in our Government of our Duly Elected President, Trump. And I’m supposed to believe anything this TREASONOUS Jerk has to say? Not one word…..
Blah Blah Blah. What is the demographic of Tik Tok users? Mostly people in their 20’s. Just exactly how are they involved with ‘national security’?? If China is scouring Tik Tok data, it has to do with advertisers, economy, sales, etc. This fear of Tik Tok is ridiculous. Instead, we should be directing out attention to the US government’s involvement with Facebook and Twitter. This is just another distraction. Look there. Don’t look here.
Warner should be in JAIL for the attempted RUSSIAN COUP/HOAX on a sitting president. This guy is a democrat CRIMINAL.
You know who else will not give up their source code? Dominion and all of the other pretend counting machine companies.
And their pretend counting machines are made in China.
And just like the crooks at Theranos they hide behind proprietary software.
President Trump was right again, and again, and again…
Is it just me, or has his nose G R O W N ?
All the lying or something else?
I had not realized that Pres. Trump had banned TikTok because it was a National Security risk. It was Biden that removed this executive order. I think this speaks volumes regarding TikTok and obviously there are different options available than the ‘Restrict Act’.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57413227