Rep. Omar Opposes Ban On TikTok: 'I Don’t Like Censorship'

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday announced her opposition to federal proposals to ban TikTok, a social media app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

In early March, the White House endorsed the RESTRICT Act, a bill gaining bipartisan support that would create a pathway to prohibiting the company from operating in the United States.

And last week, lawmakers on Capitol Hill grilled TikTok’s CEO over data security and harmful content.

"I am opposed to efforts by some Republicans and Democrats to unilaterally ban an entire social media platform—TikTok," Omar said in a statement.

"First of all, I don’t like censorship. There are very legitimate concerns about privacy and the harvesting of private user data on social media platforms, but this proposal doesn’t address those. Instead it singles out one platform—TikTok—and bans it outright."

In addition to First Amendment concerns, Omar called proposed bans "bad policy" and called for "actual standards and regulations around data harvesting and privacy violations across social media companies."

"There are also concerns that TikTok could be used for propaganda and hate speech. As a frequent target of disinformation campaigns myself, I am sympathetic to these concerns. But again, this problem is not unique to TikTok. Twitter, Instagram, and famously, Facebook have all been used by foreign adversaries for disinformation campaigns targeting US citizens. Our regulations should address these broad issues instead of singling out one platform.

"Lastly, there are legitimate concerns about the Chinese government—including their brutal repression of the Uyghur people and their suppression of basic rights of freedom of expression in their country," Omar continued.

"But banning one social media company based in China will not solve those problems. The American model rests on our protection of those freedoms—the ability to speak publicly against the government, or if you choose, to share a 10 second video cooking your favorite meal. That is the beauty of our democracy and our constitution. That is what sets us apart from authoritarian regimes like China. And that is the example we should set for the world."

The White House and dozens of state governments have already banned TikTok from official devices.

The U.S. is not alone in seeking to restrict TikTok. The European Union banned TikTok from official devices and the European Parliament could pass further restrictions.