There are serious concerns about China spying on millions of Americans.
But many top Democrats are disturbingly siding with China.
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez defended Communist China with this shocking statement.
In her very first TikTok video on Saturday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY) defended the social media app run by Chinese company ByteDance, saying that instead of banning the app, there should be broader data privacy laws instead.
“Do I believe TikTok should be banned? No,” AOC said in her video.
“First of all, I think it’s important to discuss how unprecedented of a move this would be,” she said. “The United States has never before banned a social media company from existence, from operating in our borders and this is an app that has over 150 million Americans on it.”
Ocasio-Cortez added that banning TikTok “doesn’t really address the core of the issue, which is the fact that major social media companies are allowed to collect troves of deeply personal data about you that you don’t know about, without really any significant regulation whatsoever.”
“In fact, the United States is one of the only developed nations in the world that has no significant data or privacy protection laws on the books,” she said.
Instead of banning TikTok outright – which has 150 million users – AOC says the answer is to “actually protect Americans from this kind of egregious data harvesting that companies can do without your significant ability to say no.”
AOC also criticized the fact Congress hadn’t received a secure briefing when legislation is being considered.
“Why would we be proposing a ban regarding such a significant issue without being clued in on this at all?” she asked. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
“But frankly, I think a lot of this is putting the cart before the horse,” she concluded.
“Our first priority should be in protecting your ability to exist without social media companies harvesting and commodifying every single piece of data about you without you and without your consent.”
She isn’t the only Democrat to defend TikTok. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) claimed, ironically, that the social media app promotes free speech.
“TikTok as a platform has created a community and a space for free speech for 150 million Americans and counting,” Bowman said during a press conference. “It is also a place where 5 million small businesses are selling their products and services and making a living.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) also spoke up in defense of TikTok this week.