On Wednesday, the House passed a bill that would effectively ban the social media giant TikTok in the United States, with the legislation garnering support from Democrats and Republicans.
The bill was introduced by Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher and Illinois Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi.
The legislation is not the first, as previous measures brought forth by Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley (R) have attempted to ban TikTok. The new legislation comes after concerns over national security skyrocketed in connection to the social media platforms part company, the Chinese-owned ByteDance.
After a 352 to 65 vote, with 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans voting no, the bill will now head to the Senate, but even if it’s passed, it may be in vain if it reaches Joe Biden’s desk.
Hawley, who recently joined Audacy to discuss the legislation, says it may never be signed into law because President Joe Biden does not want to ban TikTok. It's worth noting that Hawley has endorsed Donald Trump for president, and that Trump first tried to ban the app in 2020 unless it sold to a new owner and then changed position last week and came out in support of keeping it.
“The real truth is Biden could have banned it,” Hawley said. “Trump tried to ban it when he was president. Biden has had years now to act. He hasn’t done it. In fact, Biden is on TikTok, and the reason is the Democrats secretly love it. They think that their voters are on TikTok.”
Hawley pointed out that Biden is on the platform trying to campaign for votes from younger voters, who make up a large portion of the roughly 170 million Americans who are on the platform.
“Whatever the problem is, it’s a backdoor for spying by the Chinese Communist Party,” he said.
As for Hawley's preferred presidential candidate Trump, the man himself told CNBC that he now supports keeping Tik Tok in the U.S. because "frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are a lot of users, a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok.” USA Today and others noted that Trump's reversal came after he met with a billionaire conservative donor who is part-owner of TikTok's parent company.
Trump has also said that banning TikTok would overly benefit Facebook and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, a platform and a person with which he has openly beefed.
When it comes to why he thinks banning the app is important, Hawley pointed to foreign interference, saying that there are too many risks and that a US company needs to step in and buy it.
“ByteDance, the parent company, would either have to sell TikTok or else if they don’t sell it, then they’d have to shut it down. We can argue about, you know, the exact details of the bill and is it written precisely the correct way? But I think this is the right thing,” Hawley said.
Hawley continued, saying he doesn’t “want China on our farmland. I don’t want China in our industries. I don’t want China in our media. I think we’ve got to put Americans back in control of all those things.”