Rand Paul on TikTok divestment: “There’s nothing in this that protects your data”

Who?Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — Ranking Member on Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee LISTEN: Laslo & PaulAsk a Pol asked:Because Americans’ private data is now treated like a commodity, would the new TikTok divestment bill do anything to prevent our data being sold to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) via third party data brokers? Key Paul: “It doesn’t do it. You could force the sale of TikTok to another company, and they could still sell the data to the Chinese,” Sen. Rand Paul told Ask a Pol. “There’s nothing in this that protects your data.” ICYMI — Laslo’s TikTok coverage for WIRED magazine Caught our ear: “I think we should be more thoughtful with the constitutional issues like First Amendment, speech,” Paul says. Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), slightly edited for clarity.TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Rand PaulSCENE: Sen. Paul, an aide and a reporter are walking from his office to the Capitol in between two tram tracks in the Senate basement. Laslo and another reporter join the parade until Paul and his aide hop an elevator up to the Senate floor. Rand Paul: “…that’s lack of due process, you have to have due process. All these people say, ‘Oh, the Chinese government…’, they’re actually saying the Chinese Communist government owns the company. That’s not even anywhere near true. The company is 60% owned by international investors, 20% owned by the two guys — Chinese software engineers, that developed the app — and 20% by the employees, which includes 7,000 American employees. So it’s a complicated ownership that involves people from all over the world. You can’t just take the company from them because you don’t like them based on an accusation. If you listen carefully to [FBI Director] Christopher Wray, he says they could, the communists could get their data. It’s based on the conjecture that they might. It’s not even saying they have. So we’re basing it on whether the communists could get their data or get your data. And the bottom line is, if you don’t like something, don’t use it. That’s what happens every day.”Reporter #2: “Have you spoken to any of the (inaudible) yet?”RP: “I have not recently.”Matt Laslo: “What do you think of how quickly this moved? It just dropped two weeks ago, now it’s out of the House and over here.”RP: “I think we should be more thoughtful with constitutional issues like First Amendment, speech.”ML: “Yeah? And then, when it comes to Americans’ data privacy — because our private data is a commodity now…”RP: “Yeah. It doesn’t do it.”ML: “…that can be sold to the CCP [Chinese Communist Party].”RP: “Yeah. You could force the sale of TikTok to another company, and they could still sell the data to the Chinese.”ML: “Yeah?”RP: “There’s nothing in this that protects your data.”ML: “Yeah? So you think it’s just a patch? Would you like to see a measure that protected data — or that started that conversation?”RP: “We’ll talk about that later. Right now, I just — on the bill, I think it’s an awful bill.”ML: “Preciate y’all.”Paul aide: “Thank you!”Paul and his aide hop an elevator, as Laslo greets a fellow journalist who’s not in the congressional press corps’ uniform of a tie… . ML: “Not this guy — tieless wonder. How you doing, man?”Reporter: “I wore a tie yesterday to the…” Matt Laslo covers tech politics for WIRED, lectures on technology’s impact on government at Johns Hopkins and is the founder of Ask a Pol — a new people-powered press corps. Ask a Pol — asking your lawmakers your questions at your US Capitol. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.askapoluaps.com/subscribe