(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., decided to defend TikTok after conservatives decided to ban the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] app all around the country.
On Saturday morning, AOC posted a video on TikTok, in which she pushed back against bipartisan support for a nationwide ban on the app, according to the Daily Wire. She minimized concerns about security and data privacy and added that TikTok was no different from other apps that harvest data. As a solution, she called for a broader data privacy law.
“Do I believe TikTok should be banned? No,” AOC said.
“First of all, I think it’s important to discuss how unprecedented of a move this would be. The United States has never before banned a social media company from existence, from operating in our borders and this is an app that has over 150 million Americans on it.”
Ocasio-Cortez also minimized the concerns of the people that TikTok is a tool that Chinese communists use to spy on Americans and steal their data.
“[Banning TikTok] doesn’t really address the core of the issue, which is the fact that major social media companies are allowed to collect troves of deeply personal data about you that you don’t know about, without really any significant regulation whatsoever,” she said.
“In fact, the United States is one of the only developed nations in the world that has no significant data or privacy protection laws on the books.”
She added that, instead of banning the app that 150 million people use, the United States government should “actually protect Americans from this kind of egregious data harvesting that companies can do without your significant ability to say no.”
“But frankly, I think a lot of this is putting the cart before the horse,” she said. “Our first priority should be in protecting your ability to exist without social media companies harvesting and commodifying every single piece of data about you without you and without your consent.”
