United States Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has jumped on the bandwagon of progressive lawmakers who are speaking out against a proposed TikTok ban.
Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a TikTok video had also opposed a ban, as do free-speech groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union.
According to some latest reports, US Senator Rand Paul has blocked a bid to fast-track a ban on TikTok, citing concerns about free speech and uneven treatment of social media companies.
“I think we should beware of those who use fear to coax Americans to relinquish our liberties,” Paul, a Republican, said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “Every accusation of data gathering that has been attributed to TikTok could also be attributed to domestic big tech companies,” he was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
TikTok, the report says, has spent more than $1.5bn on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Tuesday, Omar said she is opposed to efforts by some Republicans and Democrats to unilaterally ban an entire social media platform—TikTok.
“First of all, I don’t like censorship. There are very legitimate concerns about privacy and the harvesting of private user data on social media platforms, but this proposal doesn’t address those. Instead it singles out one platform—TikTok—and bans it outright. Aside from raising legitimate first amendment concerns, this is bad policy. We should create actual standards and regulations around data harvesting and privacy violations across social media companies—like many countries around the world have already done—not ban particular platforms we don’t like, Omar said.
She further referred to concerns that TikTok could be used for propaganda and hate speech and added, "As a frequent target of disinformation campaigns myself, I am sympathetic to these concerns. But again, this problem is not unique to TikTok. Twitter, Instagram, and famously, Facebook have all been used by foreign adversaries for disinformation campaigns targeting US citizens. Our regulations should address these broad issues instead of singling out one platform."
“Lastly," she added, "there are legitimate concerns about the Chinese government—including their brutal repression of the Uyghur people and their suppression of basic rights of freedom of expression in their country."
But banning one social media company based in China will not solve those problems, she opined. "The American model", Omar said, "rests on our protection of those freedoms—the ability to speak publicly against the government, or if you choose, to share a 10-second video cooking your favorite meal. That is the beauty of our democracy and our constitution. That is what sets us apart from authoritarian regimes like China. And that is the example we should set for the world."