(ConservativeSense.com) – Last month, the US House of Representatives voted in favor of legislation that could ban the social media app TikTok in America. A recent investigation found that some of the Representatives who support the bill still have active accounts on the popular app.
On Wednesday, March 13, the TikTok bill passed the House in a vote of 352-65, which sparked widespread criticism and debates among citizens and lawmakers about free speech and the First Amendment. If it makes it past the Senate and President Joe Biden’s desk, the bill would force ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns most of TikTok, to sell all of its shares within a period of six months or face a potential banning of the app in the US.
The bill, which still hasn’t received Senate approval, came in response to concerns that ByteDance is allegedly connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and could be exposing American users’ information to the Chinese government, posing a national security risk. ByteDance has denied having links to the CCP and sharing user information with its parent company in Beijing.
According to a recent investigation by Newsweek, 12 of the representatives who voted in favor of the bill that could potentially kill the app have verified accounts on it. Some of those accounts are still active, some have stopped posting, and a couple have no posts. Some of those representatives, who are all Democrats, include Adam Shiff of California, Colin Allred of Texas, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, and Jeff Jackson of North Carolina.
Seven other unverified accounts were found but were not confirmed to belong to those representatives. Newsweek also discovered many imposter accounts.
Although the bill is technically not a ban, a TikTok spokesperson said that it is based on the fact that it was processed in “secret” and then “jammed through.” The spokesperson added that the company hopes Congress “will consider the facts” and listen to constituents so they realize millions of small businesses that use TikTok will be negatively impacted.
Critics of the bill also cite free speech concerns and free enterprise, arguing that Americans should have access to the app and be allowed to do business with its Chinese parent company.
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