Posted on 03/29/2023 7:59:52 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) got into a heated exchange over the ban of the China-owned app TikTok in the U.S.
Paul hit the brakes on Hawley’s proposed bill to ban the platform, arguing it would limit free speech and emulate censorship from the Chinese government.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Hawley requested unanimous consent on the No TikTok on United States Devices Act, legislation he introduced in January, warning that American data is being collected on the social media app by the platform’s Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance.
“We acted just a few months ago with a sense of urgency because we decided TikTok was a national security threat,” Hawley said. “And we were right to act just those few months ago. And now, we must take the next step — to ban TikTok nationwide to protect the security of every single American.”
However, Paul interjected, saying it would go against the First Amendment.
“We should not let fear of communism cause us to ignore our First Amendment protections of free speech. This legislation would require our president to ban TikTok,” Paul said. “I ask the American people, do you want Joe Biden to be your censor? Do you want a president of either party to decide what you are allowed to say and hear? Who will you entrust to save you from your own eyes and ears?”
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
The bill doesn’t even mention TikTok.
And it gives the power solely to the Executive. Vague as hell.
Rand should have emphasized that.
The bill needs re-working to get rid of the bad parts of it that allow the Executive branch to have too much control, however:
This is a damned if you do or damned if you don’t situation.
If you ban Tik Tok, you tick off lots of young people. Most of those young people however, that frequent Tik Tok, wouldn’t vote Pub anyway because 1) they are mindless; 2) they are brainwashed already; 3) they are young and know nothing of the world and those in it that are evil; and 4) they are well on the way to being totalitarian little socialist twits (Mao’s red gangs or Hitler’s brown shirts come to mind) themselves. The votes we will lose I maintain, are ones we most likely wouldn’t get anyway. The properly raised young people won’t be swayed by Tik Tok’s allures in the first place.
On the other hand, if you go ahead with the ban, the Dems will be deprived of young eyeballs, and the news propaganda and the less than subtle brainwashing that would be posted by the Dems continually between now and the 2024 election. It will thus remain unseen. Dems would be deprived of the Tik Tok platform to spew out their political lies and deceptions to further poison our young people’s minds with, which will be a good thing.
I’m for banning Tik Tok. The youth on it are really not our base, and our voters will come from venues other than those who mindlessly waste their lives away on Tik Tok.
The choice as I see it: do you want our youth to be brainwashed and polluted by the Chinese or by the Dems. If Tik Tok is not banned, our youth will be polluted by both. If banned, the young will be polluted by neither, with a risk I maintain, that is slight of youth not voting for Pubs, as most of them wouldn’t vote for Pubs anyway, or won’t vote at all. I suspect it will be no great loss.
Rand Paul, whom I like is, after all, a true Libertarian at heart, and doesn’t see the dangers of Tik Tok through the lens that most Conservatives do. Tik Tok is a dangerous foreign entity, and will, through the Tik Tok medium, continue the corruption of our youth already begun early in their education by the liberal brainwashing permeating our public school educational system in the U.S.
Rand Paul is a national treasure.
This is another “wolf in sheep’s clothing” bill.
Last night, Jesse Waters had Lindsey Graham on to talk about the dangers of this “anti-TikTok” bill, which Graham co-sponsored. It soon became obvious that Graham had never even read this bill, and even that he was confused about which bill they were talking about. Graham admitted he didn’t understand the bill and said he would have to get back to Watters.
Ron Johnson is no slouch in that regard.
Let’s hope Tucker tracks this one down...
This is not Hawley’s bill.
Poorly written article.
This bill was a total piece of totalitarian crap masked as a blow to TikTok and it would have been ten times worse than the Patriot Act. Thune and the other ass hats can ESAD.
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