Congressman McClintock Calls TikTok Ban ‘Slippery Slope’
Washington, DC — A bill easily passed in the US House of Representatives 352 – 65 that would essentially force TikTok’s parent company to sell the social media app or face a ban.
The action comes after national security concerns were raised about the Chinese company Byte Dance, based in Beijing, being a foreign adversary and having access to US user data.
Mother Lode Congressman Tom McClintock voted against it, arguing, “If there are data privacy concerns, we should warn consumers, and trust them to make their own decisions. If there are propaganda concerns, we should defend the free and open debate that our First Amendment protects, confident, that the best way to judge the truth from lies, is to put the two of them side by side and trust the people to know the difference.”
McClintock continued, “The answer to authoritarianism is not more authoritarianism. The answer to CCP (Chinese Communist Party) propaganda, is not CCP-style oppression. Let us slow down before we blunder down this steep and slippery slope.”
The bill’s fate is unclear in the Senate. President Joe Biden indicated last week that he would sign the bill if it makes its ways to his desk.
The legislation is called the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act and was introduced by Republican Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
