Squad member BACKS TikTok: Bowman says Republicans want to ban app because they ... trends now
Three House Democrats offered a passionate defense of TikTok in the face of growing sentiment on Capitol Hill that the Chinese video-sharing platform poses a security threat to the U.S.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the progressive New Yorker leading TikTok's defense, framed the move to ban it as a First Amendment issue and a 'xenophobic' singling out of a platform that poses no more risk than any other social media.
Bowman, who first gained a wide-reaching TikTok following as he mocked Republicans during the frenzied speaker's vote in January, insisted: 'Republicans ain't got no swag, that's why they want a ban.'
'The 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,' he told reporters, flanked by some 30 popular TikTok content creators.
‘Why the hysteria and the panic and the targeting of TikTok?' he questioned. 'It poses about the same threat that companies like Facebook, and Instagram, and YouTube, and Twitter pose.’
'As we know, Republicans in particular, have been sounding the alarm, creating a Red Scare around China,' Bowman added.
Rep. Jamaal Bowman, the progressive New Yorker leading TikTok's defense, framed the move to ban it as a First Amendment issue and a 'xenophobic' singling out of a platform that poses no more risk than any other social media
'Let’s not be racist toward China… because American companies have done tremendous harm to American people,' Bowman said, arguing 'Donald Trump use Twitter to help facilitate an insurrection by the attack on the US Capitol by US citizens,' referring to January 6th.
But critics in both parties have expressed concerns that it represents national security and data privacy threats as its parent company ByteDance is effectively controlled by the Chinese government.
Bowman said if there were a true national security threat, Congress would have already gotten a bipartisan classified briefing on the matter. 'Republicans whip something like this into hysteria,' he insisted.
But at least one of Bowman's fellow progressives, Rep. Raja Khrishnamoorthi, has been outspoken about the need to ban TikTok so long as it remains under Chinese ownership.
'So long as TikTok remains under
