Rand Paul Breaks With GOP to Slam ‘National Strategy to Permanently Lose Elections’ By Banning TikTok

Photo by Michael Brochstein/Sipa US via AP Images

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) dissented from many of his Republican colleagues by arguing they should abandon their effort to have TikTok banned in the United States.

Paul wrote an opinion piece for Louisville’s Courier-Journal that began with his lament “Congressional Republicans have come up with a national strategy to permanently lose elections for a generation.” He wrote that banning TikTok would backfire on Republicans not only because of its popularity with young Americans but also because it would imitate China’s suppression of free speech.

From the piece:

The banning TikTok strategy also comes while the GOP simultaneously complains of liberal U.S. social media companies canceling and censoring conservatives. So, without a hint of irony, many of these same “conservatives” now agitate to ban a platform owned by an international group that includes several American investors.

So, on the one hand, Republicans complain about censorship, while with the other hand, these same Republicans advocate to censor social media apps that they worry are influenced by the Chinese.

Before banning TikTok, these censors might want to discover that China’s government already bans TikTok. Hmmm . . . do we really want to emulate China’s speech bans?

Paul’s piece acknowledges that “many Democrats have joined Republicans in calling for this ban” because of TikTok’s data-gathering capabilities and connection to the Chinese government. While the debate continues over the Bytedance-owned platform, Paul raised his concerns about censoring or forcing his opinions on TikTok or other platforms.

“The First Amendment isn’t really necessary to protect speech that everybody accepts. The First Amendment is precisely there to protect speech that might be unpopular or might be controversial,” Paul wrote. “I hope saner minds will reflect on which is more dangerous: videos of teenagers dancing or the precedent of the US government banning speech. For me, it’s an easy answer; I will defend the Bill of Rights against all comers, even, if need be, from members of my own party.”

Paul’s article came as he pushed back on Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) latest attempt to push legislation through Congress that would ban TikTok nationwide.

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