Rand Senator Paul Blocks Efforts To Ratify Ban On US Use Of TikTok

Republican Senator Rand Paul (left) is trying to block the ban on TikTok in the US. (photo: Twitter @senrandpaul)

JAKARTA - US Republican Senator Rand Paul on Wednesday, March 29 blocked efforts to accelerate the ban on China's popular social media app, TikTok, which is used by more than 150 million Americans. He reasoned that there were concerns about freedom of speech and uneven treatment of social media companies.

"I think we have to be careful with those who use fear to seduce Americans to release our freedom," Paul said on the Senate floor. "Any accusations of data collection linked to TikTok could also be linked to major domestic tech companies."

Meanwhile another Republican senator, Josh Hawley, has sought unanimous approval for the TikTok ban law. "This is to protect the American people and send a message to Communist China that you cannot buy us," Hawley said. He also added that this app was spying on Americans.

"If Republicans want to continue to lose elections for a generation, they should agree to this bill to ban TikTok - social media apps used by 150 million people, especially young Americans," Paul said on the Senate floor. "Are we really looking to emulate China's speech ban?... We're going to be like China and ban speech we fear?"

Before banning TikTok, these censors might want to discover that China’s government already bans TikTok. Hmmm...do we really want to emulate China’s speech bans?

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) March 29, 2023

The chairman of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, said last week he expects the House of Representatives to discuss legislation to tackle TikTok but time is still unclear. It is also unclear what the end of the law that will overcome TikTok will look like.

A small number but growing number of Democratic and Republican Party members have expressed concern, citing free speech and other issues and having criticized laws targeting TikTok as too widespread.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared ahead of Congress last week and faced tough questions about national security concerns over the app owned by ByteDance.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives from the Democratic Party Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a TikTok video on Friday, March 24 against the ban on TikTok, called it "unprecedented" and said Congress had not yet received a classified TikTok discussion. "This just doesn't feel right for me," he said.

Last week, three members of the House of Representatives from the Democratic Party opposed the ban on TikTok, as well as free speech groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union.

Earlier this month, the Joe Biden administration asked Chinese owners of TikTok to sell their shares or face bans in the US. Former President Donald Trump's efforts in 2020 to ban TikTok from being blocked by US courts. TikTok said it had spent more than $1.5 billion on data security efforts. strict and rejected accusations of spying on US citizens.

While many Democratic Party members argued that Congress would pass the Comprehensive Privacy Act for all social media sites, not just TikTok.

Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, and John Thune, a Republican, have proposed the RESTRICT Act, which is now backed by 22 Senate members, to power the Commerce Department in imposing restrictions to ban the use of TikTok and other foreign technologies deemed to endanger national security. This will apply to foreign technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba.

Paul said that the law "is basically giving the president unlimited authority to prohibit free speech".

The conservative number against this action is increasing. Former Republican People's Representative Justin Amash said that "The RESTRICT Law is not only about banning TikTok, but about controlling you. It gives executive branches broad power, with little control, and will be abused in every way you can imagine."

A spokesman from Warner said, "To be very clear, this law is addressed directly to companies such as Kaspersky, Huawei, and TikTok that create systemic risks to the national security of the United States - not to individual users."