U.S. lawmakers consider changes to TikTok crackdown bill
The Hindu
U.S. lawmakers are considering changes to a bill that would give the Biden administration new powers to ban TikTok.
U.S. lawmakers are considering changes to address concerns about a bill that would give the Biden administration new powers to ban Chinese-owned TikTok, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has cosponsored the legislation said on Monday.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner told Reuters that aggressive lobbying by the ByteDance-owned short video app TikTok against the Restrict Act "slowed a bit of our momentum" after it was introduced in March.
Warner said lawmakers have "a proposal on a series of amendments to make it explicitly clear" and address criticisms, including that individual Americans could be impacted or that the bill represents a broad expansion of government power.
"We can take care of those concerns in a fair way," Warner said.
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The legislation endorsed by the White House 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.
"I will grant TikTok this - they spent $100 million in lobbying and slowed a bit of our momentum," Warner said, adding that initially it seemed it would be almost "too easy" to get the bill approved.