Congress has been holding hearings on TikTok and it must let China know that time's up for its spyware platform
TikTok is pushing lies to its users about House crackdown bill: Mike Gallagher
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., explains that the House bill would force TikTok to separate itself from Chinese Community Party control.
The Chinese social media app TikTok declared war on Congress last week, while claiming it’s not a threat to national security. In a rare example of bipartisanship, that declaration seems to have awakened our leaders to the threat such a powerful, anti-American propaganda tool holds. Now, TikTok executives are worried they’re running out of time.
And they might be right.
TikTok is one of the world’s largest social media apps. It’s owned by China’s ByteDance, which is really like saying that it does the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party. The results are alarming. China manipulates the news our young people see and turns them against America in an outlandish abuse of press freedom. And the app gathers tons of data on them in the process.
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It is widely considered a Chinese spy app and is banned from government phones, though the Biden administration (D-Hypocrites) still has a campaign account on TikTok. Congress has been holding hearings on what to do about the app and its dangerous algorithm. The hearings could force the owners to sell it or possibly have it shut down. So, TikTok called on its millions of devoted followers to harass their congresspeople.
The result wasn’t a typical pressure campaign. Those happen all the time. This was essentially a foreign government pressuring our government to let it continue its anti-American propaganda. TikTok users were warned to, "speak up now – before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression."
The wording in the TikTok call to action of course left out how the bill is just forcing the sale on the owners. But when has the genocidal Chinese government cared about facts, rights or law? Pretty much never.
The Washington Post reported that, "individual House offices have since received hundreds of calls from TikTok users, at times fielding upward of 20 a minute, according to eight congressional aides."
Congressional offices reported getting many calls from citizens as young as 12 – some even threatening suicide if the app were shut down. Some offices turned over their phones to turn off the onslaught. The BBC summed up the result nicely, "Desperate TikTok lobbying effort backfires on Capitol Hill."
The bill passed the committee 50-0. It is scheduled for a full House vote on Tuesday, March 12. President Joe Biden has also indicated his support. "If they pass it, I’ll sign it," he said.
TikTok responded by claiming it has rights. China, for the record, is a Marxist dictatorship that regularly threatens its neighbors with attacks and viciously shuts down even tiny hints of freedom like in Hong Kong.
"This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it. This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs," TikTok said in a statement.
We can hope so.
TikTok has more than 1.5 billion users around the world (iStock)
Recently, TikTok launched a media campaign to push back against congressional efforts. It's called, "TikTok Sparks Good" and features some of its top creators defending what they are able to do with the platform. Cody and Erika Archie were some of the prominent users who clocked in with their support. The "first-generation ranchers from Gatesville, Texas," have 1.2 million followers on the app and say that, "TikTok is helping us protect this way of life for future generations."
They seem like nice folks and I can’t blame them for not wanting to lose the platform. But Congress has to look at the bigger picture and the many threats posed by China.
TikTok has more than 1.5 billion users worldwide, which is a terrifying power if misused. It has been blamed for "pushing children and young people towards harmful mental health content," according to Amnesty International. That includes "multiple recommended videos in a single hour romanticizing, normalizing or encouraging suicide."
Others have tied TikTok to the horrific rise in antisemitism in the West, especially among young people who love the app. Pennsylvania Democrat Sen. John Fetterman said TikTok is the reason for giving people a "warped or not reflective of the history" view of Israel’s war against terrorist Hamas. Even Osama bin Laden’s "Letter to America" was popular for a time on TikTok.
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The version of the app we get here isn’t even allowed in China. Their version urges young people to learn and better themselves, not to waste their days becoming "influencers."
Our leaders have been wrestling with the influence China has on American social media for some time. India solved the problem in 2020 by banning TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps. American politicians have been more divided because of our tradition of free press – even though TikTok’s ultimate bosses don’t believe in the concept.
Many conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, are concerned about the ban. Trump said he doesn’t want to aid TikTok competitors like Facebook, which often censor conservatives. "If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!" he posted on Truth Social.
Trump is correct about the dangers of other social media. Facebook, YouTube and pre-Elon Musk Twitter all twisted their policies to target the right. But that doesn’t mean a foreign app like TikTok should be allowed to manipulate our politics. On Monday, Trump clarified his comments and explained why he's backed away from his effort to ban China-owned app.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., voiced concerns that people on both sides of the aisle hold. He accused TikTok of "targeting American children with Chinese Communist Party propaganda — during school hours — and recruiting minors to act as foreign agents for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)."
And that’s the way we need to look at this, big time. TikTok proved to the entire world that it has too much power over Americans with its lobbying effort. No foreign adversary should be allowed to have that level of influence on our politics.
Our leaders need to tell TikTok, time’s up.
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Dan Gainor is a freelance opinion editor for Fox News Digital.
