Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, the lead sponsor of the RESTRICT Act aimed at TikTok and other possible national security risks in technology, told CNN that Thursday’s hearing in the House with TikTok leadership will help their bill advance.
“I think after today’s hearing, particularly on the House Republican side, there’s going to be some additional conversations,” said Warner.
He added: “I think there’s a great deal of interest from Senate leadership. I think we need to show a broad bipartisan House effort as well.”
The lead Republican co-sponsor, Sen. John Thune, said they don’t have “definitive” timing from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on a floor vote, although “he’s interested in seeing it advance.”
Warner pointed out that concern over the national security risks of TikTok “is one of the areas that is truly bipartisan, and there’s interest from both the House and the Senate.”
However, both Warner and Thune acknowledged that they have encountered some pushback from TikTok’s creators and from those who want to ban the app immediately.
“There are some folks who don’t want to hear about national security concerns, and clearly there’s a lot of folks who make money off of it as social influencers. I think the market will provide them another venue, another app,” said Warner.
Thune said: “There are folks obviously who want to do something immediately and ban TikTok right away, which, frankly, would be fine by me too. But that’s been tried, and it’s been thrown out in the court.”
“I just think that in terms of getting a solution here, and a solution in place quickly, our legislation represents the best possible way of getting that done,” he added.
