Proposed TikTok ban is an affront to economic and personal freedom

Congress believes it is threatening TikTok and its parent company ByteDance with laws that protect Americans from regulatory applications by foreign adversaries. But in reality, Congress is threatening America’s standing in the world as a safe haven for investment and innovation. The bill would require TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell to the United States or allied countries. If you refuse to sell or choose to sell to a “foreign adversary,” the sale will be terminated. Therefore, this is not a prohibition, but an ultimatum.

If passed, this bill would set a dangerous precedent and discourage future investment. Foreign entrepreneurs will have to wonder whether their country of origin could be next on America’s list of adversaries. What do you think entrepreneurs in Iran and Venezuela are thinking as they watch this? Do they have any reason to worry about putting their blood, sweat, and capital into America?

Unfortunately, these would-be foreign innovators have good reason to be hesitant. TikTok is just the latest in a series of government interventions into consensual economic relationships. The Fed has put the kibosh on Merger of JetBlue and Spirit Airlinesand both President Biden and former President Trump are planning block Nippon Steel of Japan acquires US Steel.

Few topics energize Congress the way TikTok did last week. When was the last time Congress introduced a bill on a Tuesday, marked it up on a Thursday, and passed it the following week? TikTok is so popular in America that Congress had no choice but to orchestrate this surprise attack. Ta. Almost half of America, 170 million Americans, are active users, including 7 million businesses. That’s a huge solid opposition.

There are several ways to attack TikTok, but the main one is that TikTok comes from China, not Silicon Valley. The story of his TikTok birth as a supervillain is a story in itself. A foreign authoritarian enemy has created an app that can brainwash young people, spy on their leaders, and collect valuable data. it is a national security threat and the critics say —There is even an existential threat to U.S. sovereignty.

In fact, TikTok is working with the US to alleviate privacy and national security concerns From 2019. The result was their $1.5 billion commitment. project texas. This means that TikTok has set up a US-led subsidiary called US Data Security to be responsible for TikTok in the US. All US data is stored on Oracle servers in the US and is under the control of his US-led USDS team.

All US user data moves in and out of Oracle’s servers. Don’t trust Oracle? the pentagon does. Furthermore, TikTok Inc., which provides the TikTok app in the United States, Incorporated in California and Delawaresubject to United States laws and regulations governing privacy and data security.

Regardless of Project Texas, could TikTok provide American data to the Chinese Communist Party anyway? Yes, but it’s unnecessary and stupid.As Paul Matsuko of the Cato Institute write,”[China] will do [have to] Are willing to risk exposure and implosion of a $200 billion company just to get information they can buy from data brokers for a penny”

Finally, Congress must ignore the fact that banning TikTok is a lot like banning speech. ”Biggest speech deletion in U.S. history, and several orders of magnitude larger,” said Paul Matsko. Additionally, the United States District Court for the District of Montana held The law enacted by the Montana Legislature is a “prohibition.”[ned] TikTok is completely limited by doing so[ed] First Amendment speech is protected by the Constitution. ”

In an effort to force ByteDance to sell or leave the U.S., Congress has weighed in on stakeholders such as investors, the parent company, the First Amendment, legal precedent, and roughly half of the U.S., which includes millions of businesses. I’m threatening you. We need more options than this sledgehammer fix to address concerns that may or even seem legitimate.

Adam Brandon is the president of FreedomWorks.