U.S. senators defend push to give Biden new tools to ban TikTok

Two U.S. senators proposing to give the Biden administration new powers to ban TikTok argued it is the best way to address security concerns over foreign-owned apps.

Two U.S. senators proposing to give the Biden administration new powers to ban Chinese-owned short video app TikTok on Thursday rejected criticism, arguing it is the best way to address security concerns about a broad range of foreign-owned apps.

Senators Mark Warner, a Democrat and John Thune, a Republican, last month proposed the Restrict Act that would grant the Commerce Department new authority to review, block, and address a range of transactions involving foreign information and communications technology that pose national security risks.

"Our bill is designed to modernize the president’s international economic authorities for the digital era, put significant guardrails on presidential authority, give Congress the authority to overturn certain decisions made by the president, and establish a risk-based process to deal with foreign-adversary technology," Warner and Thune said in a Wall Street Journal essay.

The White House and 26 senators support the Restrict Act that would apply to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. Critics say the bill is overbroad and hurts civil liberties of Americans including the more than 150 million U.S. TikTok users.

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The Republican House Financial Services Committee tweeted last week that the Restrict Act would make the Commerce Department "a dictator over trade, sanctions, investment, cryptocurrency, and more."

The senators denied targeting individual users or people using a virtual private network to access TikTok.