TikTok App (TFP File) In a veiled message to his fellow House Republicans, Rep. Matt Gaetz criticized the TikTok divestiture bill as “misguided” b
In a veiled message to his fellow House Republicans, Rep. Matt Gaetz criticized the TikTok divestiture bill as “misguided” because conservatives have not thought enough about the ramifications of giving President Joe Biden the power to control ownership of social media companies
In an email issued to constituents on Friday, the Fort Walton Beach Republican said he harbors “real concerns” about the data of U.S. users of TikTok being shared with the Chinese Communist Party. But, he added, as “is often the case in Washington, D.C., this bill’s solution is worse than the problem.”
Read: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio Urges Senate Action Following House TikTok Vote
Gaetz was one of 15 GOP lawmakers who joined 50 Democrats in opposing the bill, which now heads to the Senate. Biden has said he will sign it if Congress passes it.
The bill, if enacted, would force ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, which has close ties to the CCP, to sell the app to another firm or be blocked from the U.S.
Presumably, supporters of the bill hope that if the app is sold, a U.S. firm would acquire it.
But, as Gaezt noted, “the bill would give broad authority to the executive branch to force the divestiture of any social-media app it deems to be controlled by foreign adversaries.”
“This is a dangerous grant of authority to the executive, which could be used in the future to effectively ban popular social-media apps used by conservatives to share their speech,” Gaetz continued in the email.
Read: Florida Governor DeSantis Blasts Libs Of TikTok For ‘Lying’ About A Sunshine State Law
“Therefore, while I support banning TikTok from sharing U.S. data with the CCP—just like I support prohibiting the sharing of consumer data with our own government without a warrant—I was one of 15 House Republicans to vote ‘no’ on this misguided bill.”
Gaetz and Rep. Greg Steube of Sarasota were the only Florida Republicans to oppose the bill.
The key part of the measure, at least for conservatives, is the text that defines a “foreign adversary” and a “covered company.”
Biden, in theory, could sign the bill and then do nothing because it was force him to abandon his woke principles and declare a non-white country an “adversary.” Recall that it took him several days to decide to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon that crisscrossed the U.S. over key military installations last year.
One definition of a “covered company,” meaning one subject to the provisions of the bill, says such firms are “determined by the President to present a significant threat to the national security of the United States.”
Read: Weller: Will TikTok Be Convicted Without Trial?
The bill also defines a “foreign adversary controlled application” as technology that includes those produced by ByteDance, TikTok, a successor that is “controlled by a foreign adversary,” or a firm “owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, by a “covered company.”
As the Tampa Free Press reported last week, Congressman Steube noted that, under certain conditions, Biden could for Elon Musk to sell X or former President Donald Trump to unload Truth Social simply by declaring them a national security threat because they are under the influence of Russian operatives.
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