(NewsNation) — The House approved a bill Wednesday that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the social media app.
Cosponsor of the TikTok bill and a member of the China Select Committee, Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass., said in a Wednesday interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill” he voted to ban the app for youth mental health.
Auchincloss pushed back against suggestions the bipartisan bill raises free speech concerns. He argued that while free speech is protected, companies don’t have a “constitutional right” to have their content amplified algorithmically to millions of viewers by a company beholden to China.
“The First Amendment provides for the freedom of speech. Any American can say whatever they want on political matters of the day — that is sacrosanct,” Auchincloss said. “But freedom of speech is not freedom of reach.”
The House passed legislation Wednesday that would ban TikTok nationwide if ByteDance refuses to divest from the popular video-sharing app.
“I have dropped legislation just this week to hold all social media corporations — Meta, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter — accountable for protecting our youth online. But again, all those ones … are already subject to U.S. law. TikTok is not. So this bill is the first step to bringing parity to how we regulate these social media corporations,” Auchincloss said.
Auchincloss, one of the youngest parents in Congress, said his primary motivation was protecting kids’ mental health from social media’s “plundering.” He criticized platforms like TikTok, Instagram and others for profiting off excessive screen time that leaves families “miserable.”
“Congress has got to step up and hold them accountable,” he said. “We can’t do that, though, if TikTok answers to China and not the United States Congress.”