Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) took to the airwaves Sunday to convince Americans that China’s highly controversial TikTok app has seen the error of its ways.
Booker claimed that the wildly popular social media platform known for harvesting vast troves of user data will implement precautions to safeguard sensitive information.
This declaration came even as spy balloon debris continued to be recovered off the South Carolina coast.
Speaking to Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” the Democrat declared that there are two approaches the country can take to TikTok.
The first is the one being implemented now, where the federal government along with state leaders are banning its use on issued devices. These steps, of course, are designed to keep sensitive data out of the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
Democrat Sen. Cory Booker assures us Chinese-owned TikTok is "working with U.S. intelligence folks to try to make sure…the Chinese cannot get access and use it for spying." pic.twitter.com/3SIPcFrwfJ
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 6, 2023
Then Booker revealed the second route to take. That, he said, was to deal “directly with the company.” The senator credited TikTok with “now working with U.S. intelligence folks to try to make sure that proper precautions are taken” to deter China’s access and use of private information.
That is hardly enough to placate a growing number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who are apprehensive about the risks inherent with TikTok. A pair of Republicans last month introduced a bill in Congress to ban the platform outright.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) led the voices of lawmakers — still mostly from the GOP — in calling for downloads of the app to be prohibited.
Booker, however, is clearly not on board with this effort. He attempted to hedge his support for TikTok by asserting that there’s a “strong bipartisan view” that measures need to be enacted to ward off possible threats to the “safety, security, and national secrets” of the country.
The senator added that such threats must be taken seriously and that it is an issue when the military or U.S. firms lose proprietary information to foreign spies.
And while those concerns are valid, in the same breath Booker attempted to assure Americans that the Chinese TikTok is now willing to be transparent and work with U.S intelligence services. That’s a giant leap of faith to place in a company beholden to the CCP, and few are buying it.
