DeGette votes to protect American consumers from foreign adversary-controlled apps

Washington, D.C. - Today, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce voted to pass two bills out of Committee; H.R. 7520, the Protecting American’s Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, which would prohibit data brokers from selling, transferring, or giving access to such data to certain foreign adversaries, and H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would require all foreign-adversary-owned apps, such as the Chinese government-owned app TikTok, to fully divest from their foreign ownership.

Rep. DeGette released the following statement:

“These bills do not ban TikTok – these bills require TikTok to separate itself from control of the Chinese Communist Party. Together they protect our national security and safeguard Americans’ data,” Rep. DeGette said.

Last March, Rep. DeGette questioned TikTok CEO Shou Chew on the app’s threat to our national security and what TikTok must do to combat the spread of potentially dangerous misinformation.

“Mr. Chew assured us during his testimony that efforts were underway to disentangle TikTok from China within our borders, but that has not yet happened,” DeGette continued. “This year marks a crucial presidential election and the risk of a foreign adversary manipulating the data of TikTok’s 150 million user base is too great to ignore.”