Breaking: AOC Downplays National Security Threats And Raises Voice against Ban On TikTok In First Video She Shared On The Chinese-Owned Platform

Credit: The Guardian

Rep., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York voiced her support for TikTok in her first video shared on the Chinese-owned platform. This came after a major national security concern was raised during a House hearing last week.

“This is not only my first TikTok, but this is my first TikTok about TikTok. Now, this week, the CEO of TikTok came and testified before Congress as there is growing rumblings and discussion over a nationwide ban on the app. Do I believe TikTok should be banned? No,” Ocasio-Cortez, using the handle @aocinthehouse, said in the video which has garnered more than 2.9 million views as of Sunday. 

Fox News reported:

During the closely-watched House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was challenged by U.S. lawmakers for allegedly downplaying the platform and its parent company ByteDance’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party, as well as risks the algorithm poses for American children. 

Despite members of Congress voicing bipartisan doubts about the platform’s ability to safeguard Americans’ privacy, Chew touted how the Texas Project purportedly will eventually safely store U.S. user data on American soil. Lawmakers also pointed out how the Department of Justice is investigating ByteDance for allegedly surveilling American journalists, and FBI Director Chris Wray voiced national security concerns over TikTok’s ability to drive narratives and divide the American people at a separate hearing earlier this month. 

“Why should TikTok not be banned? First of all, I think it is important to discuss how unprecedented of a move this would be,” Ocasio-Cortez argued in her first TikTok shared Saturday. 

“The United States has never before banned a social media company from existence, from operating in our borders, and this is an app that has over 150 million Americans on it.“

“Some of the arguments about banning TikTok have come with respect to discussions around Chinese surveillance and utilization of data that is tracked and the enormous amount of tracking on U.S. citizens and data that is harvested by TikTok. And they say because of this egregious amount of data harvesting, we should ban this app,” the congresswoman said. 

“However, that doesn’t really address the core of the issue which is the fact that major social media companies are allowed to collect troves of deeply personal data about you that you don’t know about without any really significant regulation whatsoever.” 

Ocasio-Cortez said the matter was more of a policy issue, and noted that the United States “is one of the only developed nations in the world that has no significant data or privacy protection laws on the books.” 

“And usually when the United States is proposing a very major move that has something to do with significant risk to national security, one of the first things that happens is that Congress receives a classified briefing,” she said. 

“And I can tell you that Congress has not received a classified briefing around the allegations of national security risks regarding TikTok. So why would we be proposing a ban regarding such a significant issue without being clued in on this at all? It just doesn’t feel right to me.” 

AOC raises some interesting points. The American people should be interested in why our government is now so serious about “protecting” people. Always be curious when the government starts to be interested in your “safety”. Remember all the things done in the name of safety during the lockdowns?