Talk show host Bill Maher raised his concerns with TikTok’s ability to “change people’s minds” with Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Nancy Mace (R-SC).
The House passed a ban on app stores from hosting the popular short-form video platform TikTok after it passed unanimously out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. However, both Khanna and Mace voted against it. Maher asked them what common ground they shared.
“Well, the common ground is the First Amendment and free speech,” Khanna said. “I mean, it shows how out of touch Congress is that of all the issues in the country, the thing we can get done in three days is ban TikTok? That is the issue?”
“It’s a First Amendment issue. I think it’s potentially a Fifth Amendment issue,” Mace agreed. “It’s not the government’s role to ban apps from the App stores or ban websites.”
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Maher interjected by raising a red flag about TikTok’s algorithm, which can likely be controlled by the Chinese Communist Party as long as TikTok is owned by ByteDance. The CCP censors the algorithm for its Chinese users. The comedian claimed he was a free-speech person but raised concerns about the platform’s influence.
“Most of it is absolutely innocent. But it’s also there when [the CCP] needs it not to be. And we saw that after the Israeli war broke out because the kids all wound up on the side of Hamas,” Maher said. “So yes, you keep it there, and you keep it innocent. It’s mostly just dancing. When you need it to change people’s minds? Don’t kid yourself. They do have it, and they’re not acting in our best interests.”
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President Joe Biden has already promised his support of the bill should it reach his desk. The bill would allow Biden to decide which countries are deemed “foreign adversaries” and thus ban their apps from app stores.
The bill has yet to be brought before the Senate.
