FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, March 14
CONTACT: Marisa Melton, (208) 743 – 1388, marisa.melton@mail.house.gov
WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Congressman Russ Fulcher released the following statement on the passage of H.R. 7521, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications
“I voted to pass H.R. 7521 today to stop the Chinese Communist Party from manipulating, surveilling, and targeting American citizens.
Apps such as TikTok give the Chinese Communist Party the ability to engage in psychological warfare against the American people. Due to the algorithms at play, the CCP can feed users whatever information they please, truthful or not.
Just last week, the Chinese Communist Party used TikTok as a propaganda tool to spread misinformation falsely claiming Congress is voting to ban the app, telling users to input their zip codes to ‘take action’ and call their representatives. Not only does that intimidate users into handing over even more of their data, but it manipulates reality for many Americans.
H.R. 7521 does not ban TikTok. It averts national security threats by blocking foreign adversaries from accessing American data.
The ball is in their court. It is essential apps such as TikTok sever ties with the Chinese Communist Party to protect American data.”
2 replies on “Congressman Russ Fulcher’s Statement on the Passage of H.R. 7521”
Hey, Russ: Why don’t you pass a law requiring adults to act like adults and use their critical thinking skills to avoid being manipulated? That would solve the Tik Tok issue without infringing on my right to free speech.
If you did that, maybe you and your buddies in Congress could turn your attention to:
Unfettered illegal aliens flooding our country and state.
China buying up all our farmland.
China shipping fentanyl to our country in millions of doses.
The continued imprisonment of Americans who availed themselves of their First Amendment right to peaceful protest.
The “cancellation” of legally-incurred debt by the current administration, in blatant disregard of a US Supreme Court ruling.
You know, Russ- actual threats to our country.
Do your job, Russ. I dare you.
Russ,
In case you didn’t know it, you voted for a bill that allows the crooked Attorney General and/or demented Illegitimate President to unilaterally shut down ANY website they deem “dangerous.” H.R. 7521 does not protect Americans at all. It’s a trojan horse, just like the Patriot Act.
Here’s what Senator Rand Paul has to say about the “Tik Tok Ban” Bill:
“The majority of House Republicans, amazingly, just aligned with the Biden administration on one of its top priorities to ban the social media app TikTok. This amounts to the most far reaching act of censorship in the history of the United States. It’s an attack on the right of American citizens to receive their information from any source they choose. Most of us believe that was a fundamental right. But of course, almost no one in Washington will admit that that’s happening.
They say, oh, TikTok’s owned by the Chinese government. The Chinese Communists own it. Well, that’s not even true. You can’t say stuff just over and over again. That’s not true. TikTok is owned by about 60% of it’s owned by international investors from all over the world. 20% is owned by the two Chinese software engineers that created the app. And 20% is owned by the employees of TikTok, which 7000 of them are Americans. So there’s a significant nexus of Americans in the ownership. And then there’s a significant nexus of Americans using this, and they say, oh, well, the Chinese government owns it. It’s just frankly, not true. Now, the company that owned TikTok also owns something like TikTok that is censored in the Chinese. Let that be broadcast throughout China. The Chinese government does have a member of the board. It’s called doyenne. It’s the Chinese TikTok. But they don’t have a member of the board of ByteDance. They don’t control ByteDance. And the data is now kept in Oracle Cloud, centered in Texas. And this has been done because the company wants to try to exist. It’s a very popular app. They had has a great deal of value. So they’re doing anything they can to comply. And yet the hysterics in the house are just shut them down, shut them down. Communism, this, communism that.”
I’ve got news for you. Your constituents are not stupid. Apparently, we know more about what’s in the bill than you do.
If you didn’t know what was in the bill, and just went along with your colleagues in passing it, your taxpayer-funded staff members aren’t doing their jobs–and neither are you. If you did know what was in the bill, you are complicit in censorship and furthering the aims of the illegitimate, dictatorial regime.
Meanwhile, the Republican-controlled Congress continues to fund the treachery of the illegitimate regime.
“Look here, not there!”