Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blocked an effort by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to fast-track legislation he introduced that would ban the popular Chinese-owned social media app TikTok nationwide.
The Washington Post tech reporters break down the many challenges facing TikTok as Washington raises concerns about the potential risks of Chinese-owned tech.
Paul’s free-speech argument comes a week after three Democrats made a rare defense of TikTok on the steps of the Capitol. “Our First Amendment gives us the right to speak freely and to communicate freely, and TikTok as a platform has created a community and a space for free speech for 150 million Americans and counting,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman said. Bowmanthat more Democrats are speaking up for TikTok to counter Republican “fearmongering” against the app.
In explaining his First Amendment objection, Paul said banning TikTok would lead Republicans to “continuously lose elections for a generation,” and pointed out that many GOP lawmakers accuse domestic social media companies of censoring conservatives and portray themselves as advocates of free speech.“Without a hint of irony, many of these same conservatives now rail against censorship, while advocating for censorship against social media apps they worry are influenced by the Chinese,” he said.
Many Western governments are concerned that Chinese authorities could force TikTok to share sensitive information from users under laws such as a 2017 Chinese National Intelligence law, which says “any organization” must cooperate with state intelligence work, according to theTikTok has touted “Project Texas,” which would store new American user data in the United States, as a remedy to these concerns, though not all lawmakers...
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