The U.S. House is expected to vote on a new bipartisan bill that could end TikTok in the U.S. And Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Bucks) is on board.
“The congressman does not use TikTok, and he supports the bill,” said Jason Donner, a spokesman for Fitzpatrick.
The bill is expected to come up for a House vote on Wednesday.
For years, tech experts have warned the app, owned by a Chinese company, harvests massive amounts of data from users. Thanks to laws governing Chinese businesses, that data is accessible to the Chinese Communist Party.
As a result, the Biden administration has banned the app from federal government devices. Many states have done the same. Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity has banned it from devices in her department.
The bill was passed out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a 50-0 vote.
Fitzpatrick’s fellow Delaware Valley lawmakers—Democrats Chrissy Houlahan, Madeleine Dean, and Mary Gay Scanlon—did not respond when DVJournal tried to learn their positions on the TikTok bill. Houlahan has a TikTok account, as do Pennsylvania’s U.S. Sens. Bob Casey and John Fetterman.
They also declined to respond.
On Monday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its annual threat assessment. It reported the Chinese Communist Party used TikTok to influence U.S. elections. And, the report added, China will “attempt to influence the U.S. elections in 2024 at some level because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions.”
President Joe Biden has said he’ll sign the legislation if it comes to his desk. But its fate is uncertain in the Democratic majority Senate. The Biden campaign, however, uses TikTok.
A TikTok spokesperson said, “This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States. The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
Although former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, had tried to ban TikTok during his term through an executive order, a bid that the courts rejected, he now says he opposes banning the app.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last election, doing better. They are a true enemy of the people!” he wrote on Truth Social.
Money from a foundation funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, appeared to have impacted the 2020 election when Biden ousted Trump. The couple gave $419 million to two nonprofits, which then gave funds to nearly 2,500 Democratic-leaning local election departments for get-out-the-vote efforts across the country, including funding programs in Delaware County. That money was dubbed “Zuckerbucks.”
