Battle over TikTok, the house teeing up a showdown in the battle over a bill that could force the sale of the social media platform, the number one in the world. But despite the fact that TikTok is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance, some lawmakers still want to risk national security. Some of us just don't want the President picking which apps we can put on our phones.

Americans have access to real images of the horrors that are experienced by Palestinians daily. We no longer have to rely on legacy media to get that information. I don't like bans on speech, and I want to find ways to better restrict the use of data without taking away a platform.

They are missing the point. Joining us right now, the man who doesn't. He's leading the charge as chairman of the House Select Committee on China. He's part of the reason there's over 300 votes in the House, and it's now at the feet of the Senate. Congressman Mike Gallagher. Congressman, your thoughts about the pushback of Of the bill you helped push.

Well, clearly, my colleagues who voted against it, whose criticism you just played, didn't actually read the bill. This is not a ban on speech. This is a ban on foreign adversary control on social media, which is particularly crucial given that TikTok is now a dominant news platform for kids, for Americans under the age of 30. Would we want the Chinese Communist Party to determine what news, what information we get to see? It does not surprise me that members of the squad would want to use the app in order to get information on the conflict between Israel and Hamas right now, because the information is purely one in favor of the genocidal death cult that is Hamas, or if they wanted to be able to access Osama bin Laden's letter to America and praise it as an aspirational call. This is the type of content we're seeing on a platform. Imagine how it could be weaponized weaponized if we were debating something as critical as an authorisation for the use of military force to defend Taiwan. Look at what they did to try and stop this vote last week. Force a pop-up notification on millions of users.

Then you had 11-year-olds calling Congress, threatening to commit suicide if we took action. That's just a taste of how this platform could be weaponized by the CCP in the future.

Chairman, do you believe that this is part of a bigger story? Try to kill us with fentanyl, not addict us, kill us with fentanyl, try to infiltrate our country, and try to tell us what's important. That is why, in my view, you could tie that right to the protest on these college campuses and through the streets, these young people who believe the Palestinian Hamas cause is the place America should be right now.

It's a part of something bigger, which Xi Jinping calls the smokeless battlefield. That is his ideological war against the West, a campaign designed to weaken America from within and pit Americans against Americans and get a generation to really loathe and hate their own country and thereby undermine any action we need to actually beat the Chinese Communist Party in this protracted competition, this new Cold War. Yes, it's absolutely part of that broader ideological competition with the CCP.

Chairman, I want you to hear this. Ayesha Hasni was able to catch up with the CEO who is working the Senate side to try to stop this vote before. And by the way, this would be sell 80% of it or you get banned within six months. Here's the exchange.

Sir, why won't ByteDance just sell the company? That would avoid a ban. Why wouldn't you just sell?

The bill is 12 pages long. We have looked at it. It is not feasible to do whatever the bill thinks it does within the perimeter set out in the bill.

What's he talking about, chairman? What's not feasible about selling?

Not only is it feasible, it's been done before. There was a similar issue related to the app, Grinder, and Chinese ownership of We force divestitures all the time. We tackle ownership issues like this. We have an entire committee on foreign investment in the United States that deals with things like this. He's not being honest, and the fundamental problem remains, which is that he is beholden to ByteDance and ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party, and that's a risk that we can't take going forward.

People say, What about the Fifth Amendment? What about the First Amendment? But people don't understand. This is China. This goes right back to China. People say this is a Chinese company, but the Chinese government doesn't doesn't own it. What do you say to that?

Well, the biggest threat to free expression or the First Amendment would be Chinese ownership of a news platform in America. People can continue to post dance videos or political speech or campaign on the app so long as ByteDance, it separates from TikTok, and TikTok, separates from the Chinese Communist Party. They can continue to use the app. That's all we're talking about here. There is no scenario in which this bill targets speech content. It's about foreign adversary ownership, narrowly defined. In addition to getting free speech, in the new world in which TikTok is not controlled by the CCP, you can have something even better. You can have freedom of thought, freedom from fear that the algorithm is being manipulated to mess with you. That's what we're after here, and that's the world we want to live in.

We never should allow it to get a foothold in 2016, but we could change everything right now in 2024. Hopefully, the President and the Senate has the courage to do it. Chairman, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

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