Rand Paul smacks down bipartisan TikTok ban payments: ‘Goes towards the First Modification’

FIRST ON FOX: Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., broke from his Senate GOP colleagues on Tuesday over their opposition to TikTok, arguing that banning the favored social media app “goes towards the First Modification.”

“I believe it is a actually unhealthy thought. And folks have to ask themselves, ‘Why does the Chinese language authorities ban TikTok, and will we wish to emulate the Chinese language authorities?’ So, I believe it is a mistake,” Paul advised Fox Information Digital after weekly Senate lunches. “Should you ban a social media platform, you understand, I do not know in the event you get any clearer that that goes towards the First Modification.”

There are at present two bipartisan Senate payments aimed toward banning TikTok, a video app that exploded in reputation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic however has raised alarms over its connection to the Chinese language Communist Celebration.

Whereas congressional Democrats are divided on whether or not TikTok needs to be dealt with as a nationwide safety risk, Republicans have almost all gotten on board with curbing it – save for at the least one notable exception.

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Requested why he’s against a invoice launched by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Thune, R-S.D., that will give the president a pathway to banning TikTok, Paul replied, “I am for the First Modification to the Structure, which says that firms that function in the USA, we should not restrict their speech or individuals who attempt to broadcast speech on these platforms.”

He shared related sentiments about an earlier invoice launched by Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., that will outright ban the app from working within the U.S.: “Any payments that title a specific group have a constitutional downside … not allowed to jot down a particular regulation towards an individual or an organization. The First Modification additionally requires the federal government to remain out of regulating speech or stopping speech.”

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TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified earlier than a Home of Representatives panel final week. He repeatedly denied that the app’s mum or dad firm, ByteDance, a part of which is owned by China’s authoritarian authorities, permits Beijing to spy on American customers’ knowledge.

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Paul identified that precedent reveals that banning the social media app might not work out.

“The courts have already struck that down when the Trump administration tried to ban TikTok,” Paul mentioned. “It was struck down.”

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