Former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway has lent her voice to those urging Congress to block efforts to ban the controversial app TikTok.
TikTok reportedly scrapes and makes subscriber information available to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), without user consent.
Politico reported that the activist group Club for Growth has contracted Conway to petition Congress to reject a bill designed to ban TikTok from operating in the United States.
The bill provides ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, an alternative — sell the Chinese-owned social media platform to a non-CCP entity.
Some conservatives strongly object to TikTok’s practices but are reluctant to support the bill citing free speech concerns.
Conway, a staunch conservative, shares that view and recently told Politico that “alienating 170 million monthly U.S. users” was “draconian” and “ill-advised.”
The former White House official added that singling out TikTok while not addressing other prominent China-related concerns was not the appropriate response.
“If you want to hold China accountable, why are you starting with TikTok,” Conway said.
“Why not [probe] the origins of the COVID crisis, the fentanyl crisis, the persecution of Uyghurs, and the vulnerability of Taiwan,” she added.
Conway also shared that her polling “found that almost half of independent voters…and 40% of Republicans would be less likely to vote for a candidate that votes to ban the app.”
Former President Donald Trump had previously advocated for a ban on TikTok but does not favor the bill in its current form.
Noting a desire for more comprehensive safeguards on tech giants and social media platforms, Trump said, “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business.”
BREAKING:
⚡ 🇺🇲 Donald Trump announced that he is against banning TikTok. Zuckerberg is the enemy
"If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don't want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of… https://t.co/ud10A1JWgG pic.twitter.com/TU28vZ7Udk
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) March 9, 2024
“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election,” Trump added. “They are a true Enemy of the People!”
Taking the opposite view, President Joe Biden announced he would sign the TikTok ban if passed by Congress.
Some opponents assert that Biden supports banning TikTok because it is the only “social media platform that is not controlled by the CIA.”
BREAKING:
⚡ 🇺🇲 Biden says he would sign TikTok ban if congress passes it — Reuters
One social media that is not controlled by the CIA, and they immediately start to panic.https://t.co/BDF18qvsMS pic.twitter.com/PD5iwFV7Af
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) March 8, 2024
CNN reported that the bill, authored by Reps. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), has strong bipartisan support in Congress.
The authors argue that TikTok practices represent a security risk to American citizens. Rep. Gallagher argued that the bill “does not infringe on freedom of speech,” adding that “it’s about [mitigating] foreign advisory control of the news and the ability to spy on Americans.”
TikTok, with more than 170,000,000 users, is one of the most popular apps on the market. It currently employs more than 7,000 Americans in the United States.
