FreedomWorks Reacts to Advancement of Egregious TikTok Divestment
Washington, D.C. – Following this weekend’s House votes on the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act H.R. 8038, Adam Brandon, FreedomWorks president, commented:
“Over the weekend, the House voted on a slate of foreign aid bills, one of which contained a new version of the ‘TikTok ban’ as it is commonly referred to. All measures passed. On its face, this prohibits app stores from making applications available that are ‘controlled by foreign adversaries.’ In reality, this is not only aimed at TikTok’s parent ByteDance but all foreign companies who may run afoul of the whims and fancies of the American political class.”
“On one level, this bill will chill foreign investment in America and threaten our standing as the world’s leader in innovation. On another level, it substantively harms small businesses in America that use TikTok and other social media applications to reach customers. Indeed, millions of Americans use TikTok to grow their businesses to the tune of billions of dollars each year. Worse yet, 170 million Americans express themselves on the social media platform, making this bill the most egregious assault on our First Amendment rights, ever.”
“Members say this is necessary because of the potential exploitation of user data by the Chinese Communist Party. Fair enough. Then how about voting for actual data protection and privacy measures? House Members had the chance. Can anyone explain why the same House that voted down privacy protections for FISA conveniently rediscovered their principles for the TikTok vote? Not to mention, TikTok spent 1.5 billion dollars to ensure American data was safe within the confines of Oracle servers in Texas. We hope the Senate will remove this pernicious weed from the legislation.”
FreedomWorks will count the vote on the 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act, H.R. 8038, when calculating our Scorecard for 2024 and reserves the right to score and weigh any related votes. The scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the FreedomFighter Award, which recognizes Members of the House and Senate who consistently vote to support economic freedom and individual liberty.
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