Crenshaw dubs TikTok ‘ultimate psychological warfare weapon,’ signals support for absolute ban
Julia Johnson
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EXCLUSIVE — When it comes to TikTok, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) says it is “a weapon of mass destruction” as well as “the ultimate psychological warfare weapon.
“I would love to have that against China. And they literally already have it against us,” he said in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
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Lawmakers from both parties have started sounding the alarm on the social media application, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Because ByteDance is a Chinese company, it could be compelled by the Chinese government to turn over data under the country’s laws.
Some politicians have spoken in favor of banning elected officials from using the application. Crenshaw, along with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), recently led 17 other Republicans in calling on the Senate Rules Committee and the Committee on House Administration to “bar members of Congress from continued use of TikTok.”
Asked why some members still use the app, despite the wide consensus that it is a threat to national security, he said, “Sheer ignorance in some cases.
“Maybe it’s deliberate ignorance,” he added. “Oftentimes that’s the case in politics — people are deliberately ignorant.”
One House member, Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), has been an outspoken defender of the popular app.
However, Crenshaw said Bowman “should be a responsible adult. He should be a leader and help his constituents understand that, like, ‘Look, first of all, the Chinese can access all your data.’
“Oh, you don’t care? Fine, I get that you don’t care. But you might care one day when things escalate with China — which is seemingly inevitable at this point,” he continued. “And they now have a Trojan horse into your mind because you’re so addicted to TikTok.”
The Texas Republican explained that TikTok “seems harmless, and maybe right now it could be. But you’ve addicted 150 million people to an app that they really can’t stop looking away from, and they’re used to scrolling through it.”
He said the Chinese Communist Party can now easily use the app to its advantage if it chooses to do so.
What’s more, Crenshaw said, is that “all we have to do is say TikTok can’t operate on our Wi-Fi. That’s literally all we have to do.
“We obviously need to go a lot further than that. I mean, you’ve seen it get banned in certain campuses, and that’s the way to do it. You’ve got to remove it from Wi-Fi, and you’ve got to have cellular networks disallow it,” he further explained.
“But for now, ask your own leaders to stop using it and stop encouraging your constituents to give their data to China. That’s probably a pretty good start,” Crenshaw said.
Asked whether he would support absolute bans on the application for the public, not just government officials and agencies, he said: “Yeah, I’m at that point.
“And it’s not hard to do,” he reiterated. “Like I said, you’ve got to do it through cellular networks and Wi-Fi.”
Montana’s House of Representatives recently passed what would be the United States’s first absolute TikTok ban, prohibiting all citizens from using the application.
Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) is expected to sign the measure into law.
Several states, led by governors of both parties, have already opted to ban the application on government-owned and leased devices, as well as on government networks. It’s unclear whether states will follow Montana’s lead with absolute bans of their own.
One federal measure aimed at the application is the bipartisan RESTRICT Act, which was proposed by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and John Thune (R-SD). The bill would give the Commerce Department the ability to review information technology deals involving certain foreign nations and restrict them on national security grounds.
However, not every legislator is on board with cracking down on TikTok. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), specifically, has raised concerns over the possible implications to freedom of speech.
He recently blocked a measure introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), the No TikTok on United States Devices Act, stopping a bid to fast-track the measure. The bill would have prohibited U.S. transactions with Chinese company ByteDance, which owns Tiktok.
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According to Paul, “If Republicans want to continuously lose elections for a generation, they should pass this bill to ban TikTok — a social media app used by 150 million people, primarily young Americans.
“Do we really want to emulate Chinese speech bans? … We’re going to be just like China and ban speech we’re afraid of?” he asked.