Ask not for whom the Tik Toks , it Tiks for Thee ?

[Rach3]

From AxiosPM today:

As lawmakers ripped TikTok in a congressional hearing with the company's CEO today, the app’s users took to the platform to defend it, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.

Many members of Congress are pushing for a ban on the viral video app owned by private Chinese company ByteDance.
A hashtag — #tiktokhearing — garnered 2.8 million views as of 3:30 p.m. today.

"What is currently going on in Congress I think is straight-up fearmongering," said creator @Tegareacts, who encouraged her 3.9 million followers to reach out to members of Congress to discourage a ban.

User @drue..b, who has 1.2 million followers, said in a video posted this week: "I have made so many friendships. I have met so many new people [through the app]."

Some strategists and activists warn that a widespread ban on the app — which has 150 million monthly active users in the U.S. — could be politically risky for Democrats.

“If they went ahead with banning TikTok, it would feel like a slap in the face to a lot of young Americans,” Aidan Kohn-Murphy, a creator who used the app to support President Biden in 2020, told NBC News.


But at the hearing, members were unequivocal that they view TikTok as dangerous and a national security threat, Axios' Ashley Gold reports.

Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D-Calif.) at one point said TikTok's issues were a matter of "life and death."

"ByteDance is beholden to the CCP, and ByteDance and TikTok are one and the same," said Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), accusing the platform of lying about ties to the Chinese government.

CEO Shou Zi Chew said ByteDance is a private company, beholden to shareholders and its board, not the Chinese government.

TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said the day was "dominated by political grandstanding."

"[T]he livelihoods of the 5 million businesses on TikTok or the First Amendment implications of banning a platform loved by 150 million Americans" went unmentioned by the committee, she said.