[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 105 (Wednesday, June 18, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3478-S3479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 TIKTOK

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise to express my concerns about 
reports that President Trump is going to again extend the deadline for 
getting TikTok out of the control of ByteDance and the Chinese 
Government--concern because that means that, again, we are going to 
allow this national security issue to fester and to continue on, maybe 
for several more months.
  What we know now, though, in the middle of a global conflict, during 
which we know our enemies can weaponize TikTok to spread their 
propaganda and turn the world against the United States, we need to 
take action. While I know there are legitimate uses of TikTok, it is 
also used by governments, in particular the Chinese, to spread lies and 
indoctrinate people about what China, Iran, and Russia want Americans 
to believe about our own country, about our own government. This is 
alarming when an app is the top news source of Americans under the age 
of 30. Let me give some examples of these practices.
  In December 2023, Rutgers University found that TikTok's algorithm 
disproportionately amplified anti-Israel and, by extension, anti-
Semitic content compared with other social media platforms. This 
amplification observed in the context of a major geopolitical events, 
such as the portrayal of the Israel-Hamas conflict, and such hashtags 
``I stand with Israel'' or ``Pray for Israel'' were unrepresented. That 
means they weren't represented at a ratio of six to one.
  According to the Jewish Federation of North America, individuals on 
TikTok for over 30 minutes a day were

[[Page S3479]]

17 percent more likely to be anti-Semitic. And last year, anti-Semitic 
comments on TikTok rose 912 percent.
  My fear is that a similar study would show that in between the issues 
that we do think are legitimate businesses on TikTok, that there is a 
bias and anti-American content being pushed about even the current 
hostilities now in Iran. That is why I would like to submit for the 
Record a report by Rutgers University entitled ``A Tik-Tok-ing 
Timebomb: How TikTok's Global Platform Anomalies Align with the Chinese 
Communist Party's Geostrategic Objectives,'' which can be found online 
at https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/A-Tik-Tok-ing-
Timebomb__12.21.23.pdf.
  On the flip side of another example is the current topics that China 
doesn't like to talk about--they are sensitive to. You are never going 
to see any information on TikTok about Tiananmen Square and what 
happened.
  And now, we are in a trade war. In a new report last month, Rutgers 
University found that following President Trump's decision to put new 
tariffs on China, TikTok drove content pushing Americans to buy 
directly from Chinese manufacturers, as well as content denigrating 
U.S. companies. The research pointed it out--and it resulted in tens of 
millions of views on Chinese products, suggesting the platform 
influenced the user and drove behavior that changed at a massive scale. 
That is to say, now, TikTok is being used against us in a trade war.
  I am also concerned that despite this clear and present danger, these 
extensions just continue to give China an ability to unduly influence 
American citizens. The President needs to implement the law that 
Congress gave him, that the Supreme Court has upheld, and protect our 
military and our citizens against this foreign misinformation that is 
taking place. Last week, I asked Secretary Bessent from the Treasury 
whether he had been discussing TikTok at meetings with Chinese 
officials in London. He said they had not.
  I am concerned that these extensions of the TikTok deal are illegal. 
Note that Congress passed this law, and the President extending the 
deadline to allow them to continue to operate in the United States 
under the control of ByteDance and the Chinese Government is not what 
Congress intended.
  Congress said in the law that any deal on the sale of TikTok must 
include a transfer of the ownership of TikTok's source code, training 
data, and recommendation algorithms. This may be, for some people, not 
really clear, but we would not let the Chinese Government own ABC or 
NBC, and we shouldn't let them broadcast their content into the United 
States on ABC or NBC, and we shouldn't allow them to do the same with 
TikTok.
  The Supreme Court, as I said, unanimously upheld this law that 
Congress passed. I am concerned that each extension, though, of not 
getting a deal, puts America and some of our leading tech companies at 
great financial risk.
  Under the law, app stores that distribute and support TikTok are 
subject to severe penalties: up to $5,000 per user and that could 
amount to billions of dollars in damages. And while the current 
administration has signaled that they won't enforce the law, the 
statute of limitations for that liability is 5 years, meaning future 
administrations could apply those penalties retroactively.
  So simply put, we cannot continue to allow foreign adversaries to 
control technology that can fuel domestic and political polarization 
and civil unrest. We need the President to follow the law that Congress 
passed and bring TikTok under U.S. ownership.
  I yield the floor.

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