TikTok hawks hope intel briefing will scare Senate into action

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), left, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who chairs the Intelligence committee. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Senators wanting to crack down on TikTok are banking on U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials scaring their colleagues into action on Wednesday.

Why it matters: The House moved at breathtaking speed to pass a bill that requires the Chinese-owned Bytedance to divest from TikTok or face a ban. President Biden is willing to sign it. But momentum has slowed in the Senate.

• There were only eight days between the bill’s introduction and its overwhelming passage in the House.

Driving the news: Senators on Wednesday will get a briefing on TikTok from the FBI, Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

• House members received a similar briefing from top U.S. intelligence officials about the threat of TikTok last week.
• Lawmakers have credited it with helping the bill cinch the overwhelming support it received on the House floor.

What they’re saying: “I think the fact that the intelligence law enforcement community briefed a lot of House members in closed sessions about these concerns, I’m sure helped get the vote totals so high,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a key advocate of the bill, told Axios last week.

• He said that having the same kind of briefing with senators will “be a critical part of making the case” for the bill.
• “Hopefully, people will leave there with the same perceptions that House members left a similar briefing a week ago,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who chairs the Intelligence committee, told Axios on Tuesday.

What to watch: The bill’s proponents are hoping the briefing makes clear the unique threat of TikTok because of its ties to China — separating it from broader concerns with social media companies and data privacy, according to one GOP Senate aide familiar with the dynamics.

• Lawmakers on the far left and the far right have raised concerns about focusing only on TikTok and not the broader social media space.
• Members have also argued there could be free speech concerns.

The big picture: The overwhelming vote in the House has put strong political pressure on Senate leaders to move on the bill, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has kept his powder dry on the issue.

文章来源：Axios

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