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NY’s Ocasio-Cortez Stands with Tik Tok, Speaks Against Govt Ban
By: Hellen Zaboulani
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill joined forces last week in an effort to ban Tik Tok, citing national security concerns.
As reported by the NY Times, progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has actively decided to oppose the ban. On Friday, the 33-year-old congresswoman who boasts a strong social media following, posted her first video on TikTok, as a means of supporting the Chinese-owned video app. In the roughly 3-minute video, which had already been viewed 1.5 million times by early Saturday morning, AOC talks about Tik Tok and the “rumbling” going on about a ban on the app. She said a ban on a social media app would be unprecedented and cited the impressive 1.5 million active American users on the app.
She said that government officials shouldn’t be rushing to ban the app, but should rather address the core problem of user data being collected, by adding laws to regulate all social media companies and protect user data. She did not directly address concerns that the Chinese authorities could use the app to monitor Americans or spread misinformation. “If we want to make a decision as significant as banning TikTok, and we believe — or someone believes — that there is really important information that the public deserves to know about why such a decision would be justified, that information should be shared,” AOC says in the video, which was also posted on Instagram. She added that Congress was not briefed about any national security threat. “Why would we be proposing a ban regarding such a significant issue without being clued in on this at all?” she asks in the video. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is now part of a tiny minority of lawmakers, all of whom are liberal-minded, who are out to support TikTok. As per the NY Times, Representative Jamaal Bowman, a close ally of AOC, is leading the defensive to protect Tik Tok in congress. Last week, the chief executive of Tik Tok, which is owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, said in a televised hearing in front of congress that the company is independent and not controlled by the Chinese government. Still, even the Biden administration and most Democrats in congress have said that Beijing could force TikTok to hand over data on Americans who use the platform. Mr. Bowman said that these fears of Chinese government manipulation are unproven and are a product of “xenophobic anti-China rhetoric.”
Mr. Bowman has said he thinks that many members of congress have had their opinions warped by anti-China “hysteria”. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez did not touch upon the U.S.-China conflict or any foreign policy related topics. She did not reply to the Times’ request for comment. AOC’s spokeswoman, Lauren Hitt, said that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez opened a TikTok account over a year ago but never posted till Friday. She said that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez did not meet with top TikTok influencers or other representatives sent by TikTok to Capitol Hill last week as part of the company’s multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign.
