Conservative Influencer Goes On Fox News To Defend Using TikTok Amid Heated Hearings

Conservative influencer Isabel Brown went on Fox News to push back against the flood of lawmakers attacking TikTok during a fiery hearing with company CEO Shou Zi Chew.

Lawmakers from both parties took turns lambasting Shou at a House Energy & Commerce Committee hearing Thursday as legislation banning the app is considered in Congress.

On Friday morning’s edition of Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom, Fox News anchor Dana Perino hosted Brown to explain why she has decided to remain on the platform when so many Republicans want the platform banned.

Brown argued that while the concerns expressed are valid, they are being selectively applied to TikTok — to detrimental effect:

DANA PERINO: So here’s some data that Tik-tok can collect from you. Let’s put that on the board for everybody to see. Your contacts, your camera, your keystroke patterns, private messages. Does that concern you as a user?

ISABEL BROWN: You know, Dana, that’s an important question. And I think cybersecurity really should be at the forefront of the minds of all of our lawmakers and policy instituters in Washington and around the country. When you look at this list specifically, many of the things that people are most concerned about specifically require your permission to share that data. So if you’re paying attention, that data is specifically protected. But beyond tick tock, this is the same information that’s shared when you open your phone through face ID or touch ID on your computer. When you’re sending text messages or emails through apps on your phone. Cybersecurity is a much bigger issue than this one particular app. And I think that our lawmakers in Washington seem to have conveniently honed in on the most popular social media app in America and around the world for a specific reason, knowing that 150 million Americans have direct access to information each and every day at the touch of their fingertips that can’t otherwise be controlled or manipulated.

DANA PERINO: You know, it’s interesting because Bytedance is a Chinese company then they could at any time. China, under their laws, can reach in and say, give us all your information. I think that’s one of the things the lawmakers were bringing up yesterday. But it’s not lost on them that a lot of young people are using this app. Listen to Congressman Mike Gallagher.

REP. GALLAGHER: They could control what news we get. Tick Tock is increasingly a news source for young Americans. It could be used to meddle in future elections. So we have to ask ourselves if we want to give the Chinese Communist Party that level of power over our sense of reality and our sense of national identity.

DANA PERINO: Your thoughts on that?

ISABEL BROWN: It’s certainly a valid concern, But I find it interesting no one seems to be bringing up the scandal when Meta sold our data to several Chinese operators in the last several years when Twitter was revealed to have been working with the FBI to spy on American citizens from the American government. That the Chinese Communist Party mines almost all of the rare element resources involved in making all of our electronic devices and so many other countless examples. Security is a forefront paramount issue in the 21st century, and particularly in the digital age. But how much of this is truly about one app versus the content that is featured on that app? I, for one, choose to stay engaged on Tik Tok because 60% of the 150 million Americans active on this app every month are Gen-Z-ers people like myself, born after 1997 who are looking for a new way for news information dissemination. They’re not watching programs like this. Instead, we’re scrolling through short one minute soundbites on social media to get similar information. People in Congress seem to be concerned that that involves a barrage of woke far left politics and indoctrination opportunities from the authoritarian left. But if we don’t engage there with content that is based in truth, that is based on goodness, how can we win the culture?

DANA PERINO: That was going to be my last question. But in true speech team spirit, you answered it for me. Isabel Brown, I hope I see you again. Thank you.

Watch above via Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom.

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