Congress Should View Its TikTok Vote as Only a First Step Toward Making the Internet Safe

WASHINGTON – Open Markets Executive Director Barry Lynn released the following statement following the Senate’s vote to force the Chinese corporation ByteDance to divest TikTok in the US: 

“For years, the Open Markets Institute and other public policy organizations have urged policymakers to address the many threats posed to U.S. national security and democracy by the surveillance- and manipulation-driven business models of Facebook, Google, and other dominant online platforms. 

“It is imperative that Congress leverage today’s vote to immediately begin a complete overhaul of a U.S. legal regime that continues to allow powerful corporations – domestic as well as foreign – to control what citizens read and how they debate with one another. And further, that continues to allow these companies to make the most intimate details of our personal lives available on the cheap to almost every corporation and government in the world. 

“TikTok is not the only communications platform that threatens our democracy and national security today. And U.S. ownership is no panacea. Indeed, absent a coherent vision for how to make all essential platforms safe for democracy, a U.S.-owned TikTok will still be a problem. 

“It is vital that Congress view this vote as but a first step to making the Internet safe for every American and for the United States as a nation. Absent further action, every dominant platform today remains free to take advertising dollars from a U.S. adversary – and from domestic enemies of our democracy and individual liberties – to run ads designed to manipulate American voters and exploit American children.  

“Seven years have passed since we first learned of how foreign powers interfered in the 2016 general election. The time has come for Congress to take serious systemic action.” 

Lynn made a similar appeal to lawmakers in March of this year, writing that "leaders from both parties have an opportunity right now to leverage the debate about TikTok to pass far more comprehensive and strategic fixes.” 

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