Malliotakis: We Will Not Allow Communist China to Weaponize American Data

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11) today released the following statement regarding the House's bipartisan passage of the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, legislation that forces ByteDance, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), to divest from TikTok.

"ByteDance’s ability to obtain the data of over 170 million Americans poses a grave danger as it can be used to exploit algorithms to threaten our country’s national security and manipulate our youth. Currently, there are no safeguards on ByteDance to protect personal data, meaning the company can collect passwords, contacts, photos, texts, location and biometric data about our children and freely share it with the CCP. We cannot trust China to properly handle the valuable and private data of American citizens, which is why we prohibited TikTok from being downloaded on federal government devices in December 2022.

"Contrary to the CCP's disinformation campaign, this legislation does not ban TikTok in the United States; it ends the practice of foreign adversaries targeting, surveilling, and manipulating Americans. The overwhelming bipartisan passage of this legislation today should send a clear message to ByteDance and the CCP that we will not allow data to be weaponized against us, and we will take decisive action to protect the privacy and security of our citizens."