CONGRESSWOMAN HOYLE’S STATEMENT FOLLOWING VOTING IN OPPOSITION TO BILL CONTAINING PROVISIONS TO FORCE THE SALE OF TIKTOK
Washington, DC – “Today I voted against H.R.8038, the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act due to its inclusion of provisions that could result in an effective ban of the social media app TikTok.
“As a member of Congress, I cannot cherry-pick the parts of a bill I wish to support when voting on final passage. Let me be clear: I strongly support several national security provisions that have been included in this bill, and I voted in favor of many of these provisions earlier this week when the House passed them as individual pieces of legislation.
“For example, I'm a cosponsor and strong supporter of the Rebuilding Economic Prosperityand Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act that is included in H.R. 8038. This would seize Russian assets in the United States and use them toestablishthe Ukraine Support Fund. I also support H.R. 8038’s inclusion of various sanctions that crack down onthe leaders of Iran, Russia, China, Hamas, and other adversaries that threaten U.S. national security.
“But I cannot support this bill due to its provisions that force the sale of the social media application TikTok, whose parent company, ByteDance, is based in China.
“I have been clear on this and voted against a similar bill – H.R. 7521, the so-called Protecting Americans fromForeign Adversary Controlled Applications Act – earlier this year. This is not just a TikTok problem, it's a problem with social media and tech companies across-the-board. That is exactly why we need to take a broader approach and ensure all social media platforms are held to the same standards of data privacy and ethical user engagement.
“The TikTok-related provisions in this bill could infringe on Americans’ freedom of speech and leave users without the application for an unknown period of time. The bill also singles out one company, and these actions could invite reciprocal attacks from other countries on U.S.-based companies. It also makes us no better than our adversaries who censor free speech and restrict data privacy in their own countries.
“It is far past time for Congress to pass comprehensive data privacy and security reform legislation that protects Americans from unconstitutional data collection by all companies, governments and digital applications – not just one.”
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