Anyone who's not in favor of a TikTok ban might themselves be a foreign agent: Bedrock's Geoff Lewis

I join us now to talk about uh Tik Tock possible Tik Tock ban and other Tech headlines let's bring in Jeff Lewis Bedrock Capital founder managing partner open AI has been in the Bedrock portfolio uh since 2021 and and and Jeff let let's talk Tik Tok do you uh you you call this a ban I think not a divestment and and would it really work if it was divested would would that solve the problem I mean look I'm I I'd I'd love for there to be Tik Tok ban I I think back to August of 2020 when we had pres

ident Trump with the executive order to ban Tik Tok and you know I think there was a an opportunity to to divest and there was a plan with Oracle and would have been a lot better if it had happen back then you know I I I support a Tik Tok ban or divestment I think we have a very significant somewhat narrow issue where we basically have a foreign government controlling one of the most powerful algorithms uh influencing the US here you know I worry that the practicality of the divestment the six-m

onth time period in this proposed bill there's a there's a possibility this bill might be designed to fail and if the bill actually fails to achieve its objective I worry about the the KnockOn effects for uh for for freedom of speech and Society here so yes I'm in favor of banning Tik Tok obviously I think anyone who's who's uh who's not in favor of of Tik Tok might might themselves be a a foreign adversary or a foreign agent for in favor of getting rid of it but I worry about how broad things c

an EXP expand here if things don't work out as the bill plans and you just if someone were to say well Jeff do you think it's a national security risk you you can't imagine that that question even still being asked you're that sure just from from what you just said it by definition it's the CCP uh it's a very powerful algorithm and and they control it I mean I I don't know how much time you're spending around young kids Joe do you have do you have grandkids do you see how much time they spend on

Tik Tok days it's insane these kids are spending so much time Tik Tok Ali so my grandkids have kids and then and then then a couple of them are pregnant uh actually it's unbelievable and they're in their 30s so no I don't have grandkids my son is 22 uh okay well my daughter is 24 in any case Late Bloomer I was a late bloomer all right let wait I just I want to back up Jeff you're saying basically anybody who doesn't think this needs to be divested or sold is themselves potentially a foreign act

or acting against us because president Trump former president Trump has changed his opinion of this you don't think there's anything that leaves room if your I think he sort of changed it back I think he sort of changed about I I haven't spoken with him directly but I think as of yesterday he's like we need to do something about it not exactly that could be stepen Manan talking to him about it too who the former treasury secretary who says that he would put together a group to buy it fair enough

look I mean I think I think the bottom line is uh it's clear that uh Chinese social controlled CCP controlled social media company having this much influence this much access to the data on like 150 plus Americans that's really dangerous we've been talking about doing something about this for years we should have done something four years ago and the qu I I just think the Contour of this bill with the definition of the foreign adversaries the power it gives the president to approve or or not ap

prove a sale I'm just worried about might this bill be designed to fail might it be a trojan horse for more regulation of more social media companies that that aren't controlled by China and I think what we have here is a narrow issue with Tik Tok and the CCP and it would be great to address it as a narrow issue rather than opening a door off for a trojan horse for for government to control all the algorithms because that is the Doomsday scenario I think China controlling a very powerful algorit

hm clearly bad you have to be an idiot to not think that's clearly bad that we need to be doing something about that but then the US government broadly having a control over all the algorithms that feels very dangerous and like a path to us becoming China over time so I'm not a lawmaker I'm not a legislator I'm not I'm not a a politician I don't know how to exactly draw the lines here but but this is a very nuanced issue oh I can draw some lines for you as as a politician young people vote yeah

and you can see it right now and they vote Democratic so they're not why do you think Schumer's not not moving why do you think Schumer thinks he can control what kind of government Israel has it's all about votes don't you think Jee I mean it's very it's a cynical viewpoint but I worry that nothing's going to H like you say nothing will happen on Tik Tok because young people vote and they're people on Tik Tok have started threatening Senators I saw a it was a recorded message message to someone

's phone last night I forget which Senator it says I'm going to kill you and I'm going to cut you up into little pieces cuz this is the only way I know how to make a living is on Tik Tok it's a really sort of it's a very sad comment on on where things are at societally here and you know we we've had this we've had this issue with social media it's just been getting worse and worse every year I I do think Tik Tok isn't just a league of its own in terms of how addictive that algorithm is the AI po

wers that it it has going to continue to be built and then just the the obvious fact that any Chinese company as a deao extension of the of the CCP so so yeah I mean the the reality of the Voting is is very scary but uh I I I do think we're uh I I I think if I think if if Tik Tok determines how people vote um we're all doomed Joe basically if people vote just because they want to have Tik Tok the way it is today then then the future is going to look very bleak