US Republican Senator Rand Paul blocked a bid to fast-track a ban on Chinese-owned social media app TikTok on Wednesday, citing concerns about free speech. Senator Paul warned against entities that ‘use fear to coax Americans to relinquish our liberties’ and said that a ban on the app would imitate ‘Chinese speech bans.’ He argued that such a bill would give the US President ‘limitless authority’ to ban speech, and questioned whether the US was ‘going to be just like China.’
Senator Paul is not alone in his opposition to the RESTRICT Act. Recently, a growing number of conservatives and democrats have raised concerns about the proposed legislation. Free speech groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union are also against the TikTok ban, arguing that the legislation is overly broad and could be used to control speech in ways that violate the First Amendment.
Former Republican Representative Justin Amash has claimed that the ‘RESTRICT Act isn’t about banning TikTok; it’s about controlling you.’ Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has also opposed a TikTok ban, calling it ‘unprecedented’ and arguing that Congress has not seen classified TikTok briefings.
The RESTRICT Act was proposed by Senators Mark Warner and John Thune, a Democrat and a Republican, respectively. If enacted, the Act would give the US Commerce Department the authority to impose limits, and if needed, completely ban TikTok and other technologies that could pose a security issue. The new rule would apply to technologies from China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. As of now, the ban has 22 Senate cosponsors.
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