TikTok is singling out lawmakers who voted for a bill that puts into motion a forced sale or a ban of the popular application in the United States while also having accounts of their own.
The new bill, passed this week as part of a foreign aid package, would give the Biden administration another chance to ban TikTok in the United States if its owner, the Chinese tech firm ByteDance, fails to divest the popular short video app over the next nine months to a year. The package passed with the help of 46 Democrats, 15 Republicans, and two independents.
However, nine senators who voted for the package have accounts on the social media application, and a couple have been active on it within the last week. Three members of the House who are running for Senate also have active accounts.
“Politicians voting to ban TikTok while also using the platform to reach voters underscores the incoherent and factually baseless arguments for a ban,” said a spokesperson from TikTok in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “They should explain their actions to the seven million businesses that would be economically devastated.”
In battleground states that are at stake in the upper chamber, Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bob Casey (D-PA) have accounts on the platform. Reps. Colin Allred (D-TX) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) also have accounts and are running in competitive races this November. However, Gallego voted against a prior stand-alone TikTok bill but then voted for the larger foreign aid bill, which included the provision involving the social media platform.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) explained his vote in his last post on TikTok and said he would have voted against the provision in the legislation if it had been voted on as stand-alone legislation, emphasizing that the situation made him “frustrated as hell.”
“I’m one of the only senators who is an active user of TikTok. I’ve seen powerful expressions of young people. I’ve been inspired as well as informed,” Booker says in the video.
“Here I am, frustrated as hell; the supplemental is what they call a must-pass bill. It has critically needed resources for our allies, as well as something I have fought very hard to include, close to $10 billion of humanitarian aid that will prevent the loss of life for perhaps millions,” Booker explains. “Now I’m put in a situation where I’m going to vote for the whole package knowing there’s something in it that is a massive missed opportunity.”
“It’s one of those frustrating times for me in Washington where someone sticks something that you disagree with onto a must-pass bill as a strategy to get folks to support it, even though they don’t,” he added.
The Washington Examiner reached out to staff for all senators with a TikTok account. A spokeswoman for Sen. Bob Casey’s (D-PA) campaign flagged his recent comments in an interview on MSNBC, where the senator expressed his hope that the legislation would ultimately spur TikTok’s parent company to sell its American assets to a new owner.
“I don’t think any American wants to put our country further at risk when it comes to China,” Casey said. “I know a lot of Americans rely upon TikTok, and that’s understandable because of the value that it can provide to a small-business owner or others who need TikTok to communicate.”
When examining the accounts of lawmakers, not many have been used regularly. Several, like the accounts for Sens. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA), appear to have been created only for the purpose of campaigning. Meanwhile, Booker, Brown, Sanders, Gallego, Schiff, and Allred have posted within the last week.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the No. 2 Senate Democrat, acknowledged the concerns about backlash from young voters if the popular social media application was banned by lawmakers in the days following the House vote in March.
When asked about the implications of banning the application during an election year, Durbin said, “Successful politics is addition and multiplication.”
“Cutting out a large group of young voters is not the best-known strategy for reelection,” he added.
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Company officials said they plan to pursue a legal challenge to block the legislation, which sets a Jan. 19, 2025, deadline for the sale, one day before Biden’s first term as president is over. TikTok is set to challenge the bill on First Amendment grounds.
“Rest assured — we aren’t going anywhere,” CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video posted on the platform after Biden signed the legislation that requires ByteDance, the Chinese parent company, to divest from TikTok or face a ban. “We are confident, and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts.”
