NC attorney general candidates on opposite sides of TikTok vote

Last fall, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop told Raleigh’s News & Observer that TikTok is “a Chinese Communist Party-owned social media platform,” and called his colleague U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson a “Chinese social media star” for using it.

On Wednesday, Bishop and Jackson — the Republican and Democratic nominees, respectively, to be North Carolina’s next attorney general — cast opposing votes in Congress to ban TikTok unless it’s sold by its Chinese-controlled parent company.

But their votes were the opposite of what you might expect, given their histories. Jackson, a TikTok star, voted for the bill. Bishop, the TikTok skeptic, voted against.

The proposal now heads to the Senate, where its future is uncertain.

After the vote, Jackson took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to explain the bill and clear up misconceptions. The controversy over banning TikTok stems from concern over the Chinese government accessing Americans’ data using the app. But Jackson said their legislation wouldn’t outright ban the app; it would just force a sale to an owner less threatening to American interests.

“I don’t think TikTok is going to be banned. There was a bill to ban TikTok last year, but it didn’t pass,” Jackson said. “TikTok may be sold to another company, but it will continue to operate.”

The best-case scenario for TikTok is that it continues to operate but is no longer owned – and potentially controlled – by an adversarial country. pic.twitter.com/JsXHliZACJ

— Rep. Jeff Jackson (@JeffJacksonNC) March 13, 2024

Jackson said he voted for the bill out of concern the Chinese government would influence users through their “For You” page on the app.

“They can tweak the algorithm in ways that can be helpful to them, and harmful to us,” Jackson said. “Letting that power stay in the hands of an adversarial government — which China definitely is — is inviting them to use that power.”

Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president who has endorsed Bishop for attorney general, came out against the bill, but his opposition did not sway most Republicans.

Nonetheless, Bishop was one of 15 House Republicans who voted against the legislation, in line with Trump’s perspective.

“I don’t use TikTok. I think it’s ill-advised to do so,” Bishop said on the House floor. “But I respect the choices of 170 million users in the United States.”

Bishop noted that the Trump Administration unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok in 2020 before the courts ruled he couldn’t because the president could not ban the flow of information across international boundaries.

“The American people have a First Amendment right of access to foreign propaganda,” Bishop said. “At first it may be remarkable, or strike one as odd, to hear that, but that’s because the proper relationship between government and citizen in the United States is that the citizen decides what to be exposed to and what ideologies to embrace and consider.”

Bishop questioned why Congress should circumvent Americans TikTok users’ First Amendment rights before yielding his time and casting his vote.

“America confronts a great challenge in China, and it will not prevail by becoming more like it,” he said.