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Sen. Mark Warner is worried that a push to pass bipartisan legislation restricting foreign technology including TikTok is falling apart on Capitol Hill, where momentum has slowed for cracking down on the popular China-founded app.
The Virginia Democrat said Tuesday that the effort to pass the RESTRICT Act got “blown out of the water” by TikTok and its owner ByteDance spending millions of dollars to organize opposition.
“I’m somewhat concerned, are we going to get there?” Mr. Warner said at the Fortune CEO Initiative in Washington regarding the legislation’s chance of passing in Congress.
Mr. Warner was a lead author among six Democrats and six Republicans who proposed the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act in March. The bill directs the Commerce Department to review tech such as TikTok and make determinations about any risk within a set time period.
If the Commerce Department chooses to pursue banning a tech product, the bill tasks the department to declassify information explaining why, in consultation with the intelligence community.
The bill was crafted with TikTok in its crosshairs, as American policymakers have long expressed a range of concerns about the app’s China-based founders and security dangers facing people’s privacy.
Mr. Warner, leader of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, has expressed regret that U.S. officials did not take action against TikTok sooner. Last year, Mr. Warner said former President Donald Trump was right about the threat posed by TikTok.
Mr. Trump pursued a ban of the app while in office, and President Biden has made no final determination about hampering its operation in the U.S. Mr. Biden signed restrictions into law that remove TikTok from federal devices, and his administration has maintained a national security review of the platform.
TikTok is not a fan of the RESTRICT Act. When senators introduced the bill in March, TikTok said banning its platform would censor Americans and block the export of culture globally.
TikTok declined to comment on Mr. Warner’s remarks on Tuesday.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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