These Lawmakers Actively Use TikTok Even After Voting To Ban It
Ticktock for TikTok.
Time is running out before a federal law goes into effect banning TikTok, the video-sharing social media app owned by Chinese company ByteDance, from operating within the United States. On Friday, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the law, though some lawmakers are trying to extend the deadline, and President Joe Biden has apparently indicated that he will not enforce the ban anyway.
But ironically, some of the very same lawmakers who voted for such an unprecedented ban are still active on an app they feel is too dangerous for the rest of us to use.
In March 2024, the House of Representatives passed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, in a vote of 352–65; it later passed the Senate by a similarly comfortable 79–18.
The bill prohibits operating or hosting “a foreign adversary controlled application (e.g., TikTok)” in the United States. TikTok would have a set amount of time to either find a buyer or shut down operations within the country. The clock runs out on January 19, and unless ByteDance manages to put together a sale overnight, its U.S. servers may go dark.
While specifics remain scarce, lawmakers cite the potential national security implications of an app used by hundreds of millions of Americans that could be subject to the whims of an authoritarian surveillance state like China.
But as Jo Jorgensen, the Libertarian Party’s 2020 presidential candidate, pointed out in a post on X this week, several lawmakers who voted to ban TikTok at the federal level still maintain accounts on the app.
A list of the people who voted YES on the Tiktok ban, who coincidently still use Tiktok.@CoryBooker @SenSherrodBrown @SenBobCasey @JohnFetterman @gillibrandny @SenMarkey @PattyMurray @SenOssoff @SenatorWarnock @JeffJacksonNC
Tell us again how dangerous it is for…
— Jo Jorgensen (@JoForLiberty) January 15, 2025
Jorgensen lists Sens. Cory Booker (D–N.J.), Bob Casey and John Fetterman (D–Pa.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D–N.Y.), Ed Markey (D–Mass.), Patty Murray (D–Wash.), Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock (D–Ga.), then-Sen. Sherrod Brown (D–Ohio), and then-Rep. Jeff Jackson (D–N.C.), who now serves as the attorney general of North Carolina.
“Tell us again how dangerous it is for National Security,” Jorgensen added.
(While there is a “Reverend Raphael Warnock” TikTok account, it is not verified by the platform; a member of Warnock’s staff told Reason it is a “false account” that is “not operated by Team Warn
Article from Reason.com
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