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WASHINGTON — Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney, both Republicans, have different views on the TikTok bill that sailed through the House earlier this week, pointing to the uncertain road the bill faces in the U.S. Senate.
Lee says he opposes the bill in its current form, while Romney has expressed support for the bill, which would require TikTok to divest from its parent company ByteDance within a six-month period. If TikTok does not divest, then app stores and web-hosting companies would not be able to offer the app.
The bill would also give the executive branch the ability to force a sale of other apps owned by a "foreign adversary" and "determined by the president to present a significant threat to the National Security of the United States."
Billy Gribbin, director of communications for Lee, told the Deseret News, "Sen. Lee wants to prevent the (Chinese Communist Party) from accessing our data through TikTok but is concerned that the current bill gives too much power to the executive branch to ban or control companies they don't like."
"Furthermore, it does not actually ban American companies from selling our data to either China or our own government — this is more about our homegrown surveillance state getting rid of competition than it is about protecting the privacy of Americans."
Posting on X, Lee said he's "open to legislation preventing the CCP from using TikTok to collect our data. But not this bill."
Romney voiced his support of the bill in an interview with KUTV. "The reality is we're not going to see TikTok close down. It's a very valuable property. It can be owned by American investors, it can be owned by the public, but it shouldn't be owned by the Chinese government," he said.
A few people have already voiced their interest in buying TikTok. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, an investment banker, told CNBC that he's putting together an investor group to buy the popular app. "Shark Tank" investor and O'Leary Ventures chairman Kevin O'Leary told Fox & Friends that if the bill passes and is signed, he will offer to buy it and turn it into an American company.
'It's not acceptable'
When explaining why he's in favor of the bill passing, Romney said he's concerned about TikTok's potential role in election interference. "We've seen how they've used it in other elections, particularly in Taiwan, to send propaganda before the elections, to gather information about the users," he said. "That's not something we want the Chinese Communist Party to be able to do."
Last year Romney, along with his colleagues Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and Sen. John Thune, R-South Dakota, reintroduced the RESTRICT Act, which would have given the executive branch the ability to ban and otherwise restrict technology owned by foreign entities where there are national security risks. The act failed to move forward.
Utah House Reps. Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy, John Curtis and Burgess Owens all voted in favor of the TikTok bill.
Curtis is a member of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, which was the committee that advanced the bill to a floor vote. He told the Deseret News on the phone that he supported it because he was concerned about potential election interference.
Pointing toward the notice sent to some TikTok users asking them to input their ZIP code to call their congressional representative, Curtis said, "That's fine if that is a private entity, but it's not acceptable if it is a foreign entity."
TikTok issued a statement in response to the House vote: "This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It's a ban. We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service."
What's next for the TikTok bill?
The TikTok bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where there's been vocal opposition to the bill. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, told Axios that he doesn't expect the bill will be voted on in the Senate.
"What we're likely to see happen in the Senate is people will nickel-and-dime it, a death by a thousand cuts," Hawley said. "Nothing that Big Tech doesn't want moves across the Senate floor."
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, has been quiet about the bill, not saying when or if he would bring it to the floor. He has said previously that the Senate will review the legislation, but didn't offer an indication of how quickly that could happen. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill if it passes.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, voiced his support for the bill during a hearing this week. "The problem is not TikTok or the videos. The problem is the algorithm that powers it is controlled by a company in China that must do whatever the Chinese Communist Party tells them to do."
Perhaps the most vocal opposition to the bill has come from Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, who disagrees with it on the grounds of free speech.
"The Constitution says that you have a First Amendment right to express yourself," Paul told media including the Wall Street Journal. TikTok users have the right to "express themselves through dancing or whatever else they do on TikTok. You can't just tell them they can't do that."
