Democrats are tools to help conservatives pass their anti-TikTok legislation. Yesterday, a bill to force ByteDance to sell the company or be shut down in the U.S. passed the House Commerce Committee 50-0. The bill was written by Mike Gallagher (R-WI), who’s leaving Congress and Raja Krishnamoorthi who plans to run for Dick Durbin’s Senate seat. The only vaguely normal Democrats co-sponsoring it are Kathy Castor (FL) and Andre Carson (IN). The rest are Republicans and corrupt conservative Dems: Elise Stefanik (MAGAt-NY), Josh Gottheimer (Blue Dog-NJ), Bob Latta (R-OH), Kevin Hern (R-OK), Seth Moulton (New Dem-MA), Chip Roy (MAGAt-TX), Mikie Sherrill (New Dem-NJ), Neal Dunn (R-FL). Haley Stevens (New Dem-MI), Ralph Norman (MAGAt-SC), Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), Kat Cammack (R-FL), Ritchie Torres ($$$-NY), John Moolenaar (R-MI), Shontell Brown (New Dem-OH) and Ashley Hinson (R-IA).
Gallagher, chair of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party: “This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users. America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States. TikTok’s time in the United States is over unless it ends its relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance.”
Typically insane and paranoid propaganda came from Trump stooge Elise Stefanik: “TikTok is Communist Chinese malware that is poisoning the minds of our next generation and giving the CCP unfettered access to troves of Americans’ data. I am proud to join Chairman Mike Gallagher in introducing the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act to finally ban TikTok in the United States. 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. We cannot allow the CCP to continue to harness this digital weapon.”
Before the vote, Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan and Heather Caygle had reported that the bill “is going to be a huge lift if it ever reaches the House floor. It’s not clear this legislation can make it through the Rules Committee, so it will likely have to be brought to the floor under suspension of the rules, which requires a two-thirds majority for passage. The backers of this bill have moved quickly, but complaints are already coming from on and off the Hill. There are First Amendment concerns, as well as a general hesitancy to disrupt an app that’s exceedingly popular with young voters during an election year. TikTok has an estimated 170 million users each month in the United States alone. TikTok bans have repeatedly stalled out in the Senate as well due to bipartisan opposition.”
The bill, which looks unconstitutional to me, is an infringement on free speech and expression and banning an app because of its ownership undermines American values of openness and free exchange of ideas. The bill itself focuses on the control of the company rather than the specific security risks of the app; a more nuanced approach is needed to address actual security vulnerabilities if there really are any. The bill sets a dangerous precedent for government intervention in the tech industry and could presage future bans on other apps based on political or economic reasons, not just supposed national security concerns. The ban wouldn’t work anyway. China banned my blog and I’ve heard from users there that they use VPNs to get around it with ease. Even Americans will figure out how to do that with TikTok.
MAGA Mike and his team are pushing to pass the bill. Sherman, Bresnahan and Caygle wrote that House Democratic leaders hadn’t taken a position but I’m hearing they encouraged Democrats on the Commerce Committee to back it even though Frank Pallone, the committee’s ranking member, complained that the process was rushed and members had only 2 days to read it and discuss it before voting. Previously Trump had signed an executive order (August 2020) banning TikTok unless it was sold to an American company, but iy was never enforced and Biden later withdrew it. TikTok spent $370,000 lobbying Congress in the fourth quarter of 2023 alone. Their K Street payroll includes heavy-hitting lobbyists such as uber-corrupt former senators Trent Lott and John Breaux and former Reps. Joe Crowley and Jeff Denham.
Angry TikTok users are letting their members of Congress know that they vote. Olivia Beavers and Rebecca Kern reported that “Congressional offices are getting bombarded with calls from TikTok users… Multiple House GOP staffers say they are being bombarded with calls” but are largely dismissive of the calls because they’re mostly coming from teenagers. “‘It’s so so bad. Our phones have not stopped ringing. They’re teenagers and old people saying they spend their whole day on the app and we can't take it away,’ one House GOP staffer told Politico… One well-connected Republican said they are hearing the TikTok campaign to call lawmakers is ‘backfiring,’ incensing members who were on the fence and are now leaning towards voting for Gallagher's bill.”
The Democrats are insane to follow the lead of corrupt conservatives like Gottheimer, Moulton and Torres on this instead of letting the Republicans just take the heat— and intense animus— from the tens of millions of TikTok fans. Civil liberties champion, Jen Perelman, the progressive candidate for the Broward County congressional seat occupied by Debbie Wasserman Schultz, understands better than many Democrats how this needs to be dealt with. Yesterday, she told me that “In addition to violating our first amendment rights, this legislation is yet another example of the political class using xenophobia to further their corporate agenda. If TikTok were owned by an Israeli company, we would be required to use it.”