Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) unveiled the inevitable race card over the federal government’s potential ban of Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok over security concerns.
The far-left representative led a press conference outside the Capitol building assailing the possible prohibition as “racist.” He was flanked by Reps. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Mark Pocan (D-WI) as he demanded that Congress “not be racist towards China and express our xenophobia.”
The trio was backed by content creators defending the controversial social media platform.
The progressive congressman claimed that he had seen no evidence that the app posed a national security risk or had been used for espionage. He asked, “Why do we need to ban a platform that 150 million Americans now use.
Bowman called the move to eradicate TikTok “political fear-mongering” and compared it to Republicans challenging “open borders.” He further branded the GOP with “sounding the alarm, creating the red scare around China.”
Rep. Jamaal Bowman: "Republicans ain't got no swag. That's why they want to ban TikTok." pic.twitter.com/pop3P1tLQG
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 22, 2023
He compared the TikTok threat to that posed by platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.
The wildly popular app recently revealed that its U.S. monthly user total climbed to 150 million, an impressive surge past the reported 100 million just three years ago.
Many Republican-controlled states banned the app from all official devices, and the federal government recently enacted the same measure. TikTok is well-known for harvesting vast troves of user data, and it is by law beholden to turn over intelligence to the Chinese Communist Party.
President Joe Biden in December inked into law a measure that cleared Congress to mandate that government agencies clean TikTok from their devices. And last week the White House demanded that parent company ByteDance divest their stake in the controversial company.
As for Bowman, it bears noting that his is a relatively lonely voice on Capitol Hill. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) urged Biden to speak out against the liberal’s baseless claims.
She tweeted Tuesday that Bowman “is joining with 20+ influencers to oppose a ban of the Communist China app. First, it was defunding the police, and now it’s supporting Communist China. Will Joe Biden denounce this madness?”
Bowman has a knack for choosing the wrong side of virtually every issue. TikTok appears to be no different, as the clear momentum in Washington is to close the nation off from its far-reaching clutches.
