Vinod Khosla and Palantir’s Jacob Helberg call on Senate to ban TikTok: It’s ‘a weapon of war’

Investor

Vinod
Khosla
and


Palantir
advisor
Jacob
Helberg
penned
an

open
letter
Thursday
calling
on
senators
to
pass
a
bill
that
would
force
the

divestiture
of
Bytedance-owned
TikTok
in
the
U.S.

Describing
the
social
media
platform
as “a
weapon
of
war,”
Helberg
and
Khosla
compared
the
bill
with
decades-old
restrictions
on
foreign
ownership
of
U.S.
media
outlets.

“Would
you
let
North
Korea
or
Iran
own
a
broadcast
channel
that
67%
of
teens
spend
almost
two
hours
a
day
on?”
the
two
wrote.

Some
critics
have
compared
the
ban
to
a

bill
of
attainder,
given
it
singles
out
one
company.
In
an
interview
with
CNBC,
Helberg
said
the
comparison
did
not
apply.

“We
have
a
long
tradition
in
American
policymaking
—
sometimes
we
do
target
individual
companies,
when
national
security
is
at
stake,”
Helberg
said.
The
bill,
which
was

overwhelmingly
passed
by
the
House
in
March,
would
demand
that
Bytedance
either
find
a
buyer
for
TikTok
or
else
face
a
ban
in
the
U.S.

Bytedance
is
not
sitting
on
the
sidelines,
however.
The
company
mobilized
its
user
base
to
oppose
the
House
bill,
urging
its
millions
of
users
to
call
their
congressional
representatives
and
voice
their
opposition.
The
in-app
notifications
prompted
a
flood
of
phone
calls
that
overwhelmed
some
congressional
offices.

Helberg
said
the
effort
was
a
prime
example
of
the
risk
TikTok
posed. “It
was
a
live
demo
of
precisely
the
kinds
of
concerns
that
we
have
been
trying
to
highlight
to
elected
officials,”
he
told
CNBC. “All
of
these
concerns
that
before
were
theoretical
were
highlighted
in
full
Technicolor
for
everyone
to
see.”

Khosla
is
founder
of
Khosla
Ventures
and
was
co-founder
of
Sun
Microsystems.
Helberg
is
a
senior
advisor
at
Palantir,
an
artificial
intelligence
firm
that
does
extensive

government
contracting
work,
including
with
the
U.S.
Department
of
Defense.

Both
are
also
deeply
involved
with
the

Hill
and
Valley
Forum,
a
working
group
first
convened
in
2023
to
combat
the
influence
of
the
Chinese
government
and
TikTok
in
the
U.S.
Hill
and
Valley
is
slated
to
reconvene
in
May.

TikTok
CEO
Shou
Zi
Chew
has
also
been
lobbying
D.C.
lawmakers
against
a
ban,
meeting
with
Sen.
John
Fetterman,
D-Pa.,
in
March.

While
the
letter
was
addressed
to
all
senators,
Helberg
said
that
he
hoped
in
particular
that
Sens.
Chuck
Schumer,
D-N.Y., and
Maria
Cantwell,
D-Wash., would
take
notice. Schumer
is
Senate
majority
leader
and
Cantwell
is
the
chair
of
the
Senate
Commerce
Committee.

But
TikTok
has
seemingly
received
apparent
support
from
an
unexpected
source:
former
President

Donald
Trump.
One
week
after
Trump
met
with

top
Republican
donor
and
Bytedance
investor

Jeff
Yass,
the
former
president
indicated
he

was
opposed
to
a
TikTok
ban,
saying
it
would
give
too
much
advantage
to


Meta,
which
owns
Instagram.

Helberg
said
that
he
didn’t
think
Trump
was
fully
opposed
to
Khosla
and
his
efforts. “If
you
look
at
his
statements,
he
has
expressed
very
strong
concerns
about
bias
and
censorship
against
conservative
voices
online,”
Helberg
told
CNBC.
Trump
is
the
presumptive
2024
Republican
nominee
for
president.

Nonetheless,
Trump’s
commentary,
paired
with
opposition
from
China’s
Foreign
Ministry,
has
raised
questions
about
whether
a
divestiture
is
even
feasible.
China
has
said
that
it
is
completely
opposed
to
the
sale
of
TikTok,
which
would
require
an
export
license
from
the
government.
That
opposition,
Khosla
and
Helberg
wrote, “tells
you
what
you
need
to
know:
TikTok
is
a ‘key
political
asset,’
not
a
commercial
enterprise.”

Top
investors,
including
former
Treasury
Secretary
Steven
Mnuchin
and
former
Activision
Blizzard
CEO
Bobby
Kotick,
are
among
those
circling
the
app,
which
would
likely
carry
a
price
in
the
tens
of
billions
of
dollars.

When
asked
what
the
odds
between
a
divestiture
and
a
ban
would
be,
Helberg
demurred.

“If
the
Chinese
Communist
Party
operates
in
good
faith
and
lives
up
to
its
claims,
a
divestiture
will
happen
in
an
orderly
manner,”
he
said. “There
are
lots
of
willing
buyers
in
the
United
States.”

TikTok
did
not
immediately
respond
to
a
request
for
comment.

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