(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s two Democratic members of Congress are defending votes against the proposed ban on TikTok.
Milwaukee Congresswoman Gwen Moore was one of 65 members of Congress to vote no on the proposed ban Wednesday.
Moore said in a statement after the vote that she doesn’t want to focus only on TikTok.
“Millions of Americans use TikTok, and I understand the national security and other concerns raised by ByteDance’s full ownership of this social media platform. However, I could not take the extraordinary measure of singling out a single social media platform, impacting the rights of millions of Americans,” Moore said.
Madison Congressman Mark Pocan also voted against the proposed ban, and said Congress needs to do more about other social media platforms.
“We need to address data privacy across all social networks, including American companies like Meta and X, through meaningful regulation that protects freedom of expression. Not just single out one platform,” Pocan added.
Neither Democrat talked about the fears that TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, is spying on Americans or the worry that TikTok’s content is negatively impacting America’s young people.
Wisconsin Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher wrote the plan and said worries about other social media platforms miss the point about the dangers of TikTok.
“TikTok is a threat to our national security because it is owned by ByteDance,” Gallagher explained. “We know this because ByteDance leadership says so, and because Chinese law requires it.
He said the threat is not just contained to what kind of information that the Chinese Communist Party may have access to. Gallagher said the threat includes what kind of information Americans are seeing on TikTok.
“[The ban deals] with foreign adversary control of what is becoming the dominant news platform for people under 30.”
Gallagher’s plan would require ByteDance to sell its ownership of TikTok, or see the app banned from use in America.
President Joe Biden has said he will sign the ban if it makes it to his desk.
