Rep.SaludCarbajal
Carbajal: “This bill is a data security bill…that would force TikTok and other foreign-owned social media apps to ensure that their databases – which are full of your personal data – don’t have direct links to foreign governments”
[Last week], Congressman Salud Carbajal joined a bipartisan majority of the U.S. House of Representatives in voting to advance the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, legislation aimed at severing the access that foreign governments have to American’s data via applications.
At the completion of the vote, Rep. Carbajal released a video statement aimed at clarifying the facts of the bill and why he supported it. The full statement can be found here.
“No, the bill passing the House today does not ban TikTok. This bill is a data security bill, one that would force TikTok and other foreign-owned social media apps to ensure that their databases – which are full of your personal data – don’t have direct links to foreign governments,” Rep. Carbajal says in the statement. “I know many of you like using this app, and I want you to continue to be able to enjoy it. But the threat of this app having a back door that leads straight to a foreign government surveilling and targeting Americans is really serious, especially when you consider more than 170 million Americans use this app. If these big tech companies don’t sever that pathway, which pose a huge risk to your data privacy and our national security, then that is on them.”
The full text of the bill advanced today can be found here.
Last week, the legislation was approved by the House Energy and Commerce committee by a bipartisan vote of 50 to 0.
Click here to watch Rep. Carbajal explain his vote for the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act
The full text of the Congressman’s video statement can be found below:
“You may have been hearing a lot about a bill Congress is debating related to TikTok and data privacy. Unfortunately, not everything has been true, so I want to set the record straight about the bill I voted for today.
“No, the bill passing the House today does not ban TikTok. This bill is a data security bill, one that would force TikTok and other foreign-owned social media apps to ensure that their databases – which are full of your personal data – don’t have direct links to foreign governments, in particular China.
“I know many of you like using this app, and I want you to continue to be able to enjoy it. But the threat of this app having a back door that leads straight to a foreign government surveilling and targeting Americans is really serious. Especially when you consider that more than 170 million Americans use this app.
“If these big tech companies don’t sever that pathway, which pose a huge risk to your data privacy and our national security, then that is on them. Tell them you want to see them follow the steps this bill lays out to protect you and your data. Only if they refuse to cut these dangerous ties to foreign governments would the President consider escalating our nation’s response.
“In our digital world, the safety of your data has to be a top priority. Your data is your civil rights, your property rights, and your right to privacy – all rolled into one. That is why I take protecting that data seriously.
“And any foreign government having the ability to eavesdrop and potentially manipulate nearly half of our country’s population is not a threat we can ignore.
“This bill will eliminate that threat while giving big tech companies a pathway to preserving their apps for American audiences and users like you. I want to be clear: this is about protecting you”
Rep. Salud Carbajal represents California’s 24th Congressional District, encompassing Santa Barbara County and portions of San Luis Obispo County and Ventura County. He is a member of the Agriculture and Armed Services Committees, as well as the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where he serves as the top Democrat on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee.
Thank you again, Congressman Carbajal.
Agreed. Besides the fact I personally think Tik Tok sucks, I know Carbo has good intentions with this. The Chinese government is wack.
Rep. Salud Carbajal: This bill allows Censorship and that is not good.
Are you aware that as written, the bill a sole person, the President of The US can take down ANY website or app by merely declaring that the site hosts “disinformation?”
It is not just TikTok; you know this correct? Any website, any app can be taken down by presidential decree.. The record of government censorship especially of recent is not good.
If what I’ve said does not make sense, I can certainly explain. Censorship is NOT an American way to go; we have a right to free speech. No touchee!
The free speech right is not absolute. Social media sites spreading disinformation are a deadly threat. The cons are opposed, because much of their stock in trade is disinformation.
Yeah, the lying and thousands of investigative hours and millions of dollars spent with the “Russian Collusion” HOAX run by Adam Schiff et al was a disgrace…
COAST – that’s not even close to what they’re talking about. That was a congressional move, this is about the massive amounts of lies that you and your buddies spread online that are fed to you, joyfully I might add, by your Orange (broke) “Billionaire.” COVID, the 2020 election, pretty much every single thing said about illegal immigrants, trans issues, US history, etc etc etc……
The number of easily verifiable lies that are allowed to spread unchecked on social media is disastrous. Look at what happened on Jan 6th for the best example of this mass-BS folks gobble up and regurgitate.
It wasn’t a “hoax” and the 2020 GOP Senate report confirmed that. Besides that and the Mueller report, DJT wants to hire Paul Manafort again, whose only talent is serving Russian billionaires and has openly admitted to funneling voter data to Putin. Not a single informed person thinks Russia didn’t help Trump in 2016 and in 2020. The evidence is overwhelming.
Sara, can you point us to the bill text? I’m lazy tonight.
the part that says the President of The US can take down ANY website or app by merely declaring that the site hosts “disinformation?”
Sara I’m not sure that’s correct. The term “disinformation” doesn’t appear in the text of the law. The law only seems to apply to sites operated by a “Foreign Adversary Country”, which if you look up that part of the code means A) North Korea, B) Russia, C) China, or D) Iran. The law says violations can result in fines- $5K times the number of users- and/or “qualified divestiture” which I think means the US just takes over the company. I’m no expert so maybe you can point out where it says the President can take down the website.
This law is less about censorship and more about protecting Americans from harmful data mining. Incidentally, Steven Mnuchin, Peter Thiel and bunch of other rich dudes are going to try and purchase TikTok, and I don’t trust those ghouls any more than I trust PRC’s leaders.
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/14/former-treasury-secretary-mnuchin-is-putting-together-an-investor-group-to-buy-tiktok.html
This is long overdue. Thank you for finally addressing these escalating invasions into our privacy and ability to “choose” what we wish to receive simply by being on the internet or having a cell phone. 🙏
I’m a lot more concerned about DOMESTIC platforms like X and Facebook storing my personal information and selling it to unknown parties who will use it for nefarious purposes.