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U.S. lawmakers are considering changes to address concerns about a bill that would give the Biden administration new powers to ban Chinese-owned TikTok<\/a>, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee who has cosponsored the legislation said on Monday.<\/p>\n Democratic Senator Mark Warner told Reuters that aggressive lobbying by the ByteDance<\/a>-owned short video app TikTok against the Restrict Act<\/a> “slowed a bit of our momentum” after it was introduced in March.<\/p>\n Warner said lawmakers have “a proposal on a series of amendments to make it explicitly clear” and address criticisms, including that individual Americans could be impacted or that the bill represents a broad expansion of government power.<\/p>\n “We can take care of those concerns in a fair way,” Warner said.<\/p>\n The legislation endorsed by the White House would grant the Commerce Department new authority to review, block, and address a range of transactions involving foreign information and communications technology that pose national security risks.<\/p>\n “I will grant TikTok this – they spent $100 million\u00a0\u00a0(roughly Rs. 820 crore) in lobbying and slowed a bit of our momentum,” Warner said, adding that initially it seemed it would be almost “too easy” to get the bill approved.<\/p>\n TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Warner’s assessment of its lobbying.<\/p>\n In March, Republican Senator Rand Paul blocked a bid to fast-track a separate bill to ban TikTok introduced by Senator Josh Hawley, who said the Restrict Act “doesn’t ban TikTok. It gives the president a whole bunch of new authority.”<\/p>\n The Biden administration in March demanded TikTok’s Chinese owners divest their stakes or face a U.S. ban. Attempts in 2020 by then President Donald Trump to ban TikTok were blocked by U.S. courts.<\/p>\n Warner said there are a lot of conversations about the bill, adding it could be attached to an annual defense bill or could be part of a China-related bill that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer wants.<\/p>\n The need for legislation is clear, he said.<\/p>\n “There have been another three or four apps that have come out that are Chinese controlled so we need a fair rules-based process to deal with this rather than kind of a one-off basis,” Warner said.<\/p>\n TikTok, which is used by more than 150 million Americans, says it has spent more than $1.5 billion\u00a0(roughly Rs. 12,400 crore) on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations.<\/p>\n The company is fighting a ban by the state of Montana set to take effect on January 1. A judge has scheduled an October 12 hearing on TikTok’s request.<\/p>\n \u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2023<\/em><\/p>\n