Texas Republican Rep McCaul Bought Meta 2 Was Before Voting To Ban Tiktok

Ugggghhhh 😒 Texas Tribune 4/11/24: WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, one of the top China hawks in Congress who is leading the charge to restrict TikTok nationwide, warned Texas lawmakers not to discriminate against Chinese Americans and immigrants in their own statewide social media ban legislation.Show more

Both McCaul and members of the Texas House introduced bills to curb perceived security threats by Chinese actors in the country via popular social media apps like TikTok, which is owned by a China-based company. McCaul’s bill, the DATA Act, would require the administration to determine whether TikTok or its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, has ever transferred sensitive data to the Chinese government and to ban the app from the U.S. if so.

Meanwhile in the Texas Legislature, Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, introduced a bill that would blanket ban apps owned by companies headquartered in a number of countries, including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Asian American groups decried the bill as too sweeping, asserting it would cut off many avenues for communication between immigrants and families back in China.

It’s a concern that appears to resonate with McCaul, who pressed members of the Legislature to keep their bills focused on national security concerns and not pass laws so broad that they unfairly impact Chinese Americans and other immigrants.

"I’ve urged the state Legislature to be targeted in their approach, not a swath that would catch people that are just fleeing oppression,” McCaul said in an interview with The Texas Tribune. “It’s got to be very careful not to go too far with that and discriminate against, you know, people that are fleeing oppression versus those that are operating under espionage purposes.”

McCaul, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he held a similar sentiment toward state legislation targeting land ownership by Chinese nationals. Gov. Greg Abbott expressed support earlier this year for banning land sales to certain Chinese citizens, which Asian American groups said could contribute to discrimination in the housing market. McCaul said land purchases by Chinese government actors around military bases