AAF: TikTok Lies. Congress Is Not Banning TikTok.

For more information, please contact AAF Policy Director John Shelton at jshelton@advancingamericanfreedom.com

AAF: TikTok Lies. Congress Is Not Banning TikTok.

BACKGROUND: TikTok is a Chinese Communist Party-controlled app used by China to surveil and manipulate the minds of more than 150 million Americans through short viral videos. Congress is currently considering H.R. 7521, legislation that would require ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to sell TikTok, divesting it from CCP-control, within six months.

THE TRUMP-PENCE ADMINISTRATION paved the path for this important legislation through an Executive Order intended to force the CCP to sell TikTok in 2020. Rather than put our country’s national security first, the Biden-Harris Administration demonstrated extreme short-sightedness and partisanship, revoking the Executive Order in 2021.

FACTCHECKING TIKTOK’S CLAIMS:

CLAIM: TikTok claims that H.R. 7521 would ban TikTok.

FALSE: H.R. 7521 simply requires that TikTok be sold within six months to a company that is not controlled by a foreign adversary.

CLAIM: TikTok claims that H.R. 7521 violates the First Amendment.

FALSE: Forcing CCP-controlled ByteDance to sell TikTok does not violate the First Amendment. The First Amendment does not protect the CCP’s ability to operate spyware in the U.S. Additionally, the First Amendment does not apply to the Chinese Communist Party.

• ACTUALLY: ByteDance's shareholder agreement bans criticism of the app. As a result, the company is seizing millions in stocks from current and former staffers.

CLAIM: TikTok is not compromised by the Chinese Communist Party.

FALSE: TikTok says that its data is kept outside of China. This is false. A former ByteDance employee asserted that the CCP has “supreme access” to TikTok’s data. Additionally, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance is headquartered in Beijing, and the CCP exercises vast control over China-based companies.

• MORE: A former ByteDance executive alleged that the CCP used its data to track and arrest Hong Kong protestors.

CLAIM: Some argue that Facebook is worse than TikTok.

FALSE: While Facebook’s past behavior regarding elections is concerning, TikTok is unique in that it provides data on millions of Americans to the Chinese government while manipulating the minds of 150 million Americans with pro-CCP propaganda (and the suppression of anti-CCP perspectives.)

• MORE: A report from Rutgers University found that “content on TikTok is either amplified or suppressed based on its alignment with the interests of the Chinese Government.”

BOTTOM LINE: The era of appeasing the Chinese Communist Party is over. Politicians claiming to be “tough on China” while simultaneously supporting TikTok spewing CCP-sanctioned propaganda across the world are wrong.

• DIG DEEPER: V.P. Pence statement on H.R. 7521: Finish the Fight on TikTok

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