“The so-called TikTok ban is a trojan horse,” says Rep. Thomas Massie.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has raised the alarm that the new bill ostensibly designed to ban the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok also gives the president the power to ban entire websites.
“The so-called TikTok ban is a trojan horse” said Massie Tuesday. “The President will be given the power to ban WEB SITES, not just Apps.”
“The person breaking the new law is deemed to be the U.S. (or offshore) INTERNET HOSTING SERVICE or App Store, not the ‘foreign adversary.’”
The so-called TikTok ban is a trojan horse.
The President will be given the power to ban WEB SITES, not just Apps.
The person breaking the new law is deemed to be the U.S. (or offshore) INTERNET HOSTING SERVICE or App Store, not the “foreign adversary.”https://t.co/iKtAQFGeQH pic.twitter.com/P26hEbzQrf
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 12, 2024
Massie then focused on a specific exclusion in the bill.
If you think this isn’t a Trojan horse and will only apply to TikTok and foreign-adversary social media companies, then contemplate why someone thought it was important to get a very specific exclusion for their internet based business written into the bill: pic.twitter.com/LnHsmEgtt9
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 12, 2024
Similarly, X boss Elon Musk echoed Massie’s sentiment by saying the new law enables government censorship.
This law is not just about TikTok, it is about censorship and government control!
If it were just about TikTok, it would only cite “foreign control” as the issue, but it does not. https://t.co/3hpePCE1nS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 12, 2024
Earlier this week, former President Donald Trump also came out against the ban on TikTok by saying the move would empower Facebook, whom he considers “an enemy of the people.”
“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” Trump told @SquawkCNBC on Monday.https://t.co/xR6QQcMJcr pic.twitter.com/36Dh5Fk2Ux
— CNBC (@CNBC) March 11, 2024
“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger,” said Trump to CNBC Monday. “And I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media.”
Massie has a track record of calling out government overreach.
In November, Massie also raised the alarm of a failed effort to stop a federal mandate that would require all vehicles sold after 2026 to be equipped with a kill switch.
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