'Republicans ain't got no swag': Squadmember Jamaal Bowman DEFENDS embattled TikTok amid calls for ban
WASHINGTON, DC: Some Democrats have offered a defense of TikTok as claims that the Chinese video-sharing platform is a security threat to the US are growing stronger. Progressive New Yorker Jamaal Bowman, who is leading the defense of TikTok, called the ban a First Amendment issue and "xenophobic." "Republicans ain't got no swag, that's why they want a ban," he said.
"The First Amendment gives us the right to speak freely, and to communicate freely and TikTok as a platform has created a community and a space for free speech for 150 million Americans and counting," Jamaal Bowman told reporters, reports Daily Mail.
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"Why the hysteria and the panic and the targeting of TikTok?" he asked. "It poses about the same threat that companies like Facebook, and Instagram, and YouTube, and Twitter pose." He added, "As we know, Republicans in particular, have been sounding the alarm, creating a Red Scare around China."
"Let’s not be racist toward China… because American companies have done tremendous harm to American people," said Bowman, adding that "Donald Trump use Twitter to help facilitate an insurrection by the attack on the US Capitol by US citizens."
Critics from both parties believe it poses a national security and data privacy threats since the Chinese government controls its parent company ByteDance. "Republicans whip something like this into hysteria," Bowman said, insisting that if it really did pose a threat, Congress would have surely gotten a bipartisan classified briefing by now.
Who is Jamaal Bowman?
Jamaal Bowman represents New York’s 16th District, including Yonkers, New Rochelle, and Mount Vernon. "Rep Bowman was born and raised in New York City, spending his early years in public housing and rent-controlled apartments. He was raised by his mother, who supported them with her post office worker’s salary," the New Yorker's website says.
"After graduating from the University of New Haven, Rep Bowman began his career as a crisis intervention teacher in a Bronx public school and went on to earn a master’s degree in guidance counseling from Mercy College and a doctorate in education from Manhattanville College. In 2009, he went on to found Cornerstone Academy for Social Action (CASA), a Bronx middle school focused on unlocking the natural brilliance of all children through a holistic curriculum, where he served as principal for a decade. Bowman lives in Yonkers, New York, with his wife and three beautiful children," it adds.
Why is Jamaal Bowman defending TikTok?
On Wednesday afternoon, March 22, Bowman defended TikTok at a conference before the US Capitol. His defense came just one day before TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was scheduled to testify before Congress in an effort to convince lawmakers that the app does not spy on Americans or provide them with harmful content.
“I haven’t seen any hard evidence that TikTok is committing some form of espionage. What I’ve heard is speculation. And what I’ve heard is innuendo,” Bowman said earlier this week. Although 150 million Americans use TikTok regularly, it has few defenders in Congress. Among them is Rep. Rob Garcia, who said, describing himself as a 'TikTok super-consumer', "I get most of my laughs from the for you page. As someone that's queer myself, as one of the few members in the Congress that is gay, the fact that there's so many young queer kids, queer creators are able to find themselves in this space, share information, feel comfortable, in some cases, come out, share their stories is so important and honestly, it's done best on the tick tock platform."
Rep Mark Pocan urged Congress members to "maybe watch TikTok or at least their staff show them and maybe they'll see that the threat is not in a single platform." "There is a real problem and we should be addressing it, and it includes TikTok and Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and other platforms about our data and our privacy of our data and selling our data and allowing misinformation," he said. "We're not doing that by a simple ban on TikTok," he added.
Chinese government could use it to 'control data collection'
However, several bipartisan bill that are now floating around could end up banning the social media app. According to FBI Director Christopher Wray, the Chinese government could use it to "control data collection of millions of users or control the recommendation algorithm, which can be used for influence operations." He also said other software on the phone could potentially be hijacked, and could subsequently allow it to collect and send more data.
TikTok has been banned from government phones and computers in half of all states. Last year, President Joe Biden ordered that federal devices get rid of TikTok.