Washington – Representative Mike Turner, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday that Tiktok will “remain a threat to national security” despite the attempts of President Trump to retain access to the popular app for sharing videos in the last few days.
“Let’s be clear. Tiktok is definitely a threat to national security ‘ Turner said about “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan. ”
Tiktok briefly stopped the services in the US last week, confronted with a diversion deadline for the China -based parent company Bytedance. But Tiktok started within a few hours repair To users when Mr. Trump promised to intervene. And on Monday the newly sworn president signed a treaty executive order the Ministry of Justice to order not to enforce the law, which the Supreme Court recently did maintainedfor 75 days.
Turner, a Republican from Ohio, outlined the reasoning behind the law that was adopted by the congress last year and signed by former President Joe Biden and who gave Bytedance until January 19 to disinvest or to be closed off from American app stores, And said that Tiktok is a national security risk. On two fronts: “There are access to data and his ability to use itself as a propaganda instrument.”
CBS news
Turner argued that “the only thing that would protect the United States and our citizens is repulsion,” and added that “the law that is the law of the country says that Bytedance should dispose of itself.”
In the meantime, reports have been circulating in recent days that the president is working on a deal to save Tiktok by selling it. Trump told reporters on board Air Force One Saturday that “countless people” talk to him about buying Tiktok, where he noticed that he will make a decision for the next 30 days. During his first term of office, the president tried to prohibit the app earlier due to concern about national security.
“If we can save Tiktok, I think it would be a good thing,” Mr Trump said, adding that he has a “warm place” for the app, thereby referring to his support among young people.
When Turner was asked on Sunday about the possibility that the president would reach a deal, he said: “We hope he will get a deal in which the issue of national security is recognized.”
“There is no role in which they can remain active, in which China can have access to this data,” Turner added.
The comments come after Turner was expelled By House Speaker Mike Johnson as chairman of the intelligence committee earlier this month. Turner said at the time that the speaker had fired him with reference to “the worries of Mar-a-Lago”. But Johnson has denied the claim. And on Sunday the Republican from Ohio said he had been in contact with the President’s team and was told that “that was not the case.”
“The only thing he said is that he wanted to send the committee in a different direction,” Turner said, adding that he is “a little worried” that the new direction could include a focus on “the elusive deep state” in place of national security.