Lawmakers cite censorship, speak up against TikTok ban

FILE – The TikTok logo is seen on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen which displays the TikTok home screen, March 18, 2023, in Boston. Social media platforms often rely on labels to let users know an account is operated by a Russian state propaganda agency. But new research shows that on […]

(NewsNation) — As momentum grows in Congress to ban TikTok, a small but influential group of lawmakers is now speaking up against a ban.

The lawmakers are asking one basic question: Why TikTok?

Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., said a ban on TikTok amounts to censorship, a violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights.

“It would basically be a limitless authority for the president to ban speech,” argued Paul.

Paul also said the way TikTok collects American users’ data is no different from what Facebook or other social media platforms do.

A lawmaker who doesn’t often agree with Sen. Paul shared that same view in this case.

Progressive U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., went on TikTok to oppose a ban.

“Hey everyone this is congresswoman AOC, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and this is my first TikTok,” she posted.

Ocasio-Cortez says the real problem is data collection in general, and banning TikTok does not solve it.

“That doesn’t address the core of the issue,” she said. “Which is the fact that major social media companies are allowed to collect troves of deeply personal data about you that you don’t know about.”

It appears, however, a majority of Congress supports a ban.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., once a CIA intelligence officer, told NewsNation that TikTok is different from other social media platforms.

“TikTok poses a very unique threat in that its parent company ByteDance is directly linked, owned by, communicates directly with, the Chinese Communist Party,” Spanberger said.

Spanberger says perhaps a bigger threat than data collection is that the Chinese government controls what American users see in their feeds.

According to Spanberger, it could be used as a propaganda tool to spread misleading or false information.

“The ability to feed information to them based on what is put in their viewing reel, that is potentially very, very potent and very, very powerful,” Spanberger said.