- The youngest member of Congress voted against the TikTok bill
- Frost said it doesn’t help young voters, but also argued the ban is bad policy
- The House voted 352 to 65 to pass the TikTok bill
- White House called for ‘swift action’ in Senate as Biden says he would sign bill
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Gen Z congressman Maxwell Frost warns that President Joe Biden could backfire on young voters by supporting a ban on TikTok as Congress moves forward with the legislation amid privacy concerns over the app’s ties to China.
The 27-year-old Florida congressman voted against the bill on Wednesday. The legislation would force the app’s Chinese parent company to sell TikTok within 180 days or it would be banned in the US.
“I don’t think it’s going to be helpful to young voters,” Frost told CNN. He said his argument is not just about young people, he believes the bill is bad policy.
The House passed the bill with overwhelming bipartisan support Wednesday, 352 to 65.
Frost, who is the youngest member of the House, said he believes the bill is a violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights and violates the Constitution.
Gen Z congressman Maxwell Frost said he was a “hell no” to the TikTok bill ahead of a House vote that would force the app’s Chinese parent to divest or face a US ban
TikTok advocates rallied outside the Capitol ahead of Wednesday’s vote to push back against the bill
“We’re talking about a platform that allows people to put information, news, whatever they want out,” Frost said ahead of the vote.
He said that no matter how you put it, forcing ByteDance to sell within five months would lead to a ban.
‘It’s unreasonable to think that in 180 days that a buyer would be found and that the deal could go ahead, which would result in TikTok being banned, whether it’s banned for a year or two years or six months , a ban is a ban,’ he said.
TikTok has 170 million users in the US. Frost said he hears all the time from young people who get their news directly from TikTok.
‘Now I have to say, am I worried about the Americans’ data? Yes, I am, he said. “But this bill does not solve that problem. Let’s be honest here.’
Rep. Frost with President Biden in the White House in 2023. Biden said he would sign the TikTok bill if it reached his desk. The congressman said a ban won’t help young voters
Lawmakers accused TikTok of providing its US user data to Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, which they say has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. 170 million people in the US use the app
TikTok sent this message to users last week after the bill was introduced
But supporters of the bill argue that it does not ban TikTok, but forces it to cut ties with the Chinese Communist Party and access Americans’ personal data.
The bill now goes to the Senate, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not committed to a vote, saying only that the Senate will review it once it comes over from the House.
Biden has said he would sign it if the bill reaches his desk, despite his campaign launching the president’s own TikTok account last month.
The White House said it wants to see the Senate “take swift action” on Wednesday.
It comes as Biden is already bleeding support among young people ahead of the 2024 election. Some have expressed frustration with the president’s support for US funding to Israel.
The latest polls still show Biden maintaining a lead over Donald Trump among voters 18 to 29, but support has fallen since Biden was elected in 2020.
As president, Trump issued an executive order declaring TikTok a threat to national security, foreign policy and the US economy.
But ahead of the vote in Parliament, he came out against the TikTok bill.
Trump argued last week that a ban on TikTok would help Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.
In an interview with CNBC, Trump also noted that there are a lot of young kids on TikTok who ‘will go crazy without it.’