
Former Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway has lent her voice to those urging Congress to block efforts to ban the controversial app TikTok.
TikTok reportedly shares subscriber information with the Chinese government (CCP) without user consent.
The National Pulse reported that the activist group Club for Growth has contracted with Conway to petition Congress to reject a bill designed to ban TikTok from operating in the United States.
The bill provides ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, an alternative — sell the Chinese-owned social media platform to a non-CCP entity.
Some conservatives strongly object to TikTok’s practices but are reluctant to support the bill citing free speech concerns.
Conway, a staunch conservative, shares that view and recently told Politico that “alienating 170 million monthly U.S. users” was “draconian” and “ill-advised.”
The former White House official argued that singling out TikTok while not addressing other prominent China-related concerns was not the appropriate response.
“If you want to hold China accountable, why are you starting with TikTok,” Conway added.
“Why not [probe] the origins of the COVID crisis, the fentanyl crisis, the persecution of Uyghurs, and the vulnerability of Taiwan,” she said.
Conway also shared that according to her polling, almost 50% of Independents and 40% of Republicans are less likely to vote for candidates who support banning the app.
Former President Donald Trump does not favor the bill in its current form.
Megatron Ron, a social media influencer who focuses on geopolitical news, reposted Trump’s concerns expressed on his Truth Social platform: “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business.”
BREAKING:
⚡ 🇺🇲 Donald Trump announced that he is against banning TikTok. Zuckerberg is the enemy
"If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don't want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of… https://t.co/ud10A1JWgG pic.twitter.com/TU28vZ7Udk
— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) March 9, 2024
“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election,” Trump added. “They are a true Enemy of the People!”
Taking the opposite view, President Joe Biden announced he would sign the TikTok ban if passed by Congress.
Noting the need for additional safeguards, the bill’s co-author, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), said via a statement through the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, “America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States.”
During an interview with CNN, Gallagher argued the bill does not infringe on freedom of speech, saying, “It’s about [mitigating] foreign advisory control of the news and the ability to spy on Americans.”
TikTok, with more than 170,000,000 users, is one of the most popular apps on the market. It currently employs more than 7000 Americans in the United States.