Fox News host Brian Kilmeade and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) clashed on Thursday’s broadcast over the potential ban on TikTok in the United States and the company’s ownership.
Paul appeared on Kilmeade’s show “Fox & Friends”. The bill would force TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to sell the app or it would be removed from U.S. app stores.
Supporters of the bill say it would protect national security by preventing ByteDance from sharing U.S. user data with the Chinese government and attempting to influence U.S. users to suit Chinese interests. It claims to be aimed at.
Kilmeade asked Paul whether “countries like Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran” should own influential platforms like TikTok.
Paul pushed back on Kilmeade’s question, saying that TikTok is actually 60 percent owned by foreign investors, 20 percent owned by the two Chinese software developers who started the business, and the remaining 20 percent owned by the app’s employees. 7,000 people claimed to own it. One of them is American.
“So it’s very diverse ownership and it’s not owned by the Chinese government,” Paul said in an interview. Highlighted by Mediaite.
He maintained that TikTok’s management has no ties to the Chinese government and that CEO Shou Zi Chew is Singaporean.
“So this is an international company, and like any other international company, it deserves its day in court. You can’t just take away its property,” he said.
Paul added that he has had issues with the Chinese government and Saudi authoritarians, but said he could not ban companies just because “we have governments that we don’t like.”
Kilmeade and Paul then started talking to each other after the Fox News host claimed that the popular app was owned by the Chinese government.
“No, they’re not — look, you just lied, Brian,” Paul said. “Don’t tell lies about your company on TV.”
Kilmeade asked Fox News producers to immediately cancel the interview.
On Tuesday, Paul said the proposed ban “makes no sense” because the app is already banned in China.
“So are we going to follow the Chinese communists and ban it in our country?” he said in an interview on NewsNation’s “The Hill.”
It is currently unclear whether the Senate will consider the TikTok bill passed by the House, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said he would consider the bill once it is introduced by the House.
Biden said last week that he supports legislation to ban TikTok if Congress passes it.
Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
