Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) spoke with Tucker Carlson in an interview on “Tucker Carlson Uncensored” Thursday to oppose the House ban on TikTok, arguing that it makes no sense based on the facts about the Chinese dance app and saying he thinks the courts would probably strike the ban down as unconstitutional if it passes into law.
“I don’t think most people are really that in favor of TikTok or the Chinese government,” Carlson said. “I assume you’re not. I’m definitely not. But Republican leaders seem to believe two things that contradict one another. One, they believe on some evidence that Joe Biden is kind of controlled by China and that Joe Biden is pushing transgenderism. And that is true.”
“But they are aligning with Joe Biden who is suddenly claiming that TikTok is bad because it’s too Chinese and it’s pouring filth into the minds of our children. Now he can’t be sincere about that obviously, so why would they be joining him in this?” Carlson asked the Kentucky Senator.
“You know my concern has always been with the centralization of power — with giving up power,” Sen. Paul said. “I don’t care whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat president. I don’t want any president to have the power to ban apps that are sold on an app store.”
Paul argued it is no different than Facebook or Google: “Does Facebook scrape your data? Sure. Does Google scrape your data. Do all of these giant tech companies scrape your data? They all take your data.”
JUNE 2013: For a decade I have been warning my colleagues that each time we give the administration an inch of authority to restrict civil liberties they take a mile.
This is my speech 10 years ago warning about CISPA/CISA.
Do not tell me this TikTok ban bill will be just fine! pic.twitter.com/YLfunMjhk7
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) March 16, 2024
Furthermore, the Kentucky Republican said TikTok is not even Chinese any longer: “But the thing is there are now accusations — they say, ‘Oh, TikTok is owned by the Chinese government. The Chinese communists own it.’ Well, that’s not even true. You can’t say stuff just over and over again that’s not true.”
“TikTok is owned by about 60% international investors from all over the world. 20% is owned by the two Chinese software engineers who created the app. And 20% is owned by the employees of TikTok, of which 7,000 of them are Americans,” Paul said. “The data is now kept in Oracle Cloud, centered in Texas.”
Best answer to @kilmeade by @randpaul regarding TikTok: I believe in the constitution. pic.twitter.com/Z2WYJ5iDMa
— Jeff Dornik (@jeffdornik) March 15, 2024
