Republican lawmakers are attempting to ban the use of a Chinese-owned tutoring company by U.S. military service members and their families to prevent information from being “exposed to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) unveiled the Ban Chinese Communist Party Access to U.S. Military Students Act on Thursday, specifically targeting the service Tutor.com.
The online tutoring company, which offers services to students in fourth grade through college, is owned by Primavera Capital Group, one of China’s leading investment firms.
The group has also notably invested in ByteDance, the Chinese Communist Party-backed company behind the social media app TikTok.
The Department of Defense (DOD) has had a contract with Tutor.com since 2022 so military families can use it, reports Just the News.
“While providing educational services, Tutor.com collects personal data on users, such as location, internet protocol addresses, and contents of the tutoring sessions,” the new legislation states.
“There is no reason the Pentagon should be paying a Chinese-owned service that collects the data of our service members and their families,” Cotton said. “There are plenty of American companies that offer tutoring services and aren’t subject to the Chinese government.”
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is introducing “companion legislation” in the House, Cotton’s office said.
Stefanik said in a press release:
I am proud to join Senator Cotton in introducing legislation prohibiting the DoD from utilizing Communist Chinese-owned company Tutor.com to educate our service members and their families. We cannot allow Communist China to collect an arsenal of data on our service members and their families that can be weaponized against them, posing a grave and unnecessary threat to America’s national security.
The legislation follows a February 14 letter from Cotton to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, urging him to end his department’s relationship with Tutor.com.
The company has denied the allegations of sharing information with the Chinese Communist Party.
“This legislation mistakenly assumes that private information of those who use our tutoring services could be transferred to China,” Tutor.com said in a statement to Fox News.
Tutor.com is a U.S. company, and U.S. student data stays in the U.S. Primavera does not have—and may not obtain—access to our IT systems, per a U.S. government national security review voluntarily initiated by both parties and conducted by CFIUS when the private equity firm acquired Tutor.com.
As required by the U.S. government, Tutor.com has a designated data security officer, who has been vetted and approved by the U.S. government, to continuously monitor and ensure compliance with data-protection measures. Tutor.com also has two independent directors on our board of directors—also required, vetted, and approved by the U.S. government—whose foremost duty is to ensure that personal data is appropriately safeguarded.
However, Cotton remains firm in his position that the contract between the DOD and Tutor.com is “unacceptable.”
It is unacceptable the Pentagon continues to use a Chinese tutoring service for American service members and their families.
The @DeptofDefense should sever its contract with @tutordotcom immediately. https://t.co/3ElI2RqadO
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 21, 2024
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