Exclusive — Sen. Marsha Blackburn: Apple ‘Awfully Cozy’ with Communist China

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview Wednesday that Apple is “awfully cozy” with the Chinese Communist Party.

Blackburn spoke to Breitbart News ahead of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on app store competition. The hearing will discuss, among other things, Apple’s tight control of its app store, which many experts have contended leads to unfair competition.

The Senator noted Apple has a more much more lax approach towards China than it does America.

She told Breitbart News, “What we know is that Apple has been awfully cozy with Communist China and we’re concerned about that, and we have some questions for Apple on how they choose this relationship with the Communist Chinese, knowing that the Communist Chinese are carrying out a genocide in Xinjiang province, and why do they continue to make products there? Why did they kick Fortnite out of the App Store and let Tik Tok stay on when they’re violating the privacy rule? … They’re staying silent on a lot of the bad action.”

She also noted that Apple will pull pro-democracy apps in Hong Kong; however, the technology company will not cooperate with the FBI to capture terrorists.

“What we see if Apple is very tied to the Communist Chinese and the hypocrisy and the double standards are something that the American people are really quite tired of, and they see through this and what they would like to do is see Apple be a little bit more U.S. business. It is American consumers that have called them to be as successful as they are,” she added.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a recent interview that the technology giant has experienced “phenomenal” growth in the country.

Blackburn said her “Virtual You” platform would help combat the excesses of big tech by addressing issues surrounding privacy, Section 230, and antitrust.

Blackburn said, “With my ‘Virtual You’ protection agenda, we are going to take up issues of privacy, data security, Section 230, and antitrust, and Consumer Protection, where I am the ranking member where I will be able to cover quite a bit of that. That’s a good thing because there are things that we can do legislatively pertaining to privacy and data security; section 230, are something that we can do legislatively working with the FTC to make certain they have the tools they need to handle enforcement and penalties. All of this will ensure that the consumers that they are in a safe virtual marketplace.”

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.