Cotton, Stefanik introduce legislation to ban Defense Department from using Chinese-owned Tutor.com

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., on Thursday introduced the "Ban Chinese Communist Party Access to U.S. Military Students Act," to prevent the Defense Department from using the Chinese-owned Tutor.com, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is introducing a companion bill in the House.

"While providing educational services, Tutor.com collects personal data on users, such as location, internet protocol addresses, and contents of the tutoring sessions," the legislation states.

The Defense Department has a contract with Tutor.com, an educational website that has been owned by the Primavera Capital Group, an investment firm linked to the Chinese Communist Party, since 2022.

"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."

Stefanik said she is "proud" to join Cotton in introducing the legislation. 

"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," she also said. 

Cotton introduced the bill after he pressed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last month for answers about his agency's contract with Tutor.com.

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