MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider spoke up in favor of a congressional bill forcing Chinese Communist Party-controlled company ByteDance to sell TikTok, ending a major foreign influence threat.
During the March 13 edition of First Edition on Newsmax 2, Schneider called for action against TikTok. Schneider told First Edition hosts John Burnett and Betsy McCaughey that “Right now, China is such a threat to America that they are actively infiltrating America right now with troops with data, scouring the internet for all of our information. They are working to control us and TikTok is their number one tool and it’s got to be stopped."
The interview took place shortly before the U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” to ban TikTok by a vote of 352-65 with one abstention.
In response to criticism of the bill, Schneider pointed out that the legislation only applies to a narrow group of American adversaries: China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Schneider expanded on the specific threat posed by TikTok to young American minds. Schneider said that the “Chinese have already been forcing TikTok to promote Chinese propaganda and to promote the policies of the Chinese Communist Party. Right after the Hamas attacks on Israel, we saw this where the Chinese Communist Party policies were being pushed onto TikTok viewers.”
Schneider noted that the threat was not limited to just propaganda, giving several examples of how the CCP could benefit from continuing to mine data on Americans. “When we have U.S. servicemen, U.S. Air Force pilots, Navy seals who may have a TikTok account, the Chinese communists know exactly where they are at all times,” Schneider warned. “They know if Seal Team Six has been deployed to the Taiwanese Strait. They know whether U.S. Servicemen in the First Infantry Division are being sent to South Korea. They can track where we are.”
But the data mining gets even scarier. Schneider noted that Beijing — through TikTok — has “access to our bank accounts. If you’ve got TikTok on your phone, the Chinese own your phone.” He continued: “They own your data, they own everything about you. And that is a serious threat that has got to be addressed.”
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