Phones on the Hill are ringing off the hook as users of Chinese-owned TikTok are calling their representatives begging them not to ban the app. But the TikTok bill isn’t meant to ban the video-sharing app — it’s meant to remove the threat of China and protect our privacy.
“Phones are completely bogged down hearing from students, young adults, adults, and business owners who are all concerned at the option of losing their access to the platform,” a senior GOP aide told Axios’ Juliegrace Brufke.
“TikTok is characterizing it as an outright ban, which is of course an outright lie,” House China Select Committee Chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) told reporters.
“I guess if you’ve got a bajillion dollars, you can come up with some crazy public affairs strategies,” a senior GOP aide told Axios’ Andrew Solender. “But it’s backfiring as members are livid about all the calls and misinformation.”
Here’s the truth…
The House Energy and Commerce Committee unveiled a bill this week in cooperation with the China Select Committee; it would force ByteDance — TikTok’s Chinese parent company — to divest its ownership of the app within 165 days, according to an Axios report.
The bill passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee 50-0; an amazing achievement considering Republicans and Democrats can’t even agree that the sky is up these days.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) has promised to bring the bill to the House floor for a vote next week; the White House says Biden is ready to sign it.
“From proliferating videos on how to cross our border illegally to supporting Osama Bin Laden’s Letter to America, Communist China is using TikTok as a tool to spread dangerous propaganda that undermines American national security,” House Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) says.
She’s right — and it appears our lawmakers are actually going to do something about it by taking China and its cyber army out of the picture.
