One of Congress' Most Popular TikTok Stars Voted for Bill That May Ban App

Representative Jeff Jackson, one of the most popular lawmakers on TikTok, voted in favor of a bill that critics say could lead to the social media platform being banned in the U.S.

Jackson, a North Carolina Democrat who is running in the state's attorney general race, was among 352 members of Congress who voted to pass the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act on Wednesday.

The bill, lawmakers say, would compel TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to divest from and sell TikTok, a popular social media application that has sparked privacy concerns due to the company's alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ByteDance and other critics of the legislation argue that the bill would amount to a ban of the app and would raise concerns about freedom of speech.

Jackson frequently posts to TikTok about his work in Congress, amassing 2.5 million followers on the platform.

He addressed the legislation in a video posted to TikTok shortly after the vote on Wednesday, saying he does not believe the bill would lead to the app being banned.

"TikTok may be sold to another company, but it will continue to operate. The bill that just passed the House was about telling TikTok they have to sell to another company," he said.

He pointed to a "serious concern" about the Chinese government having control over what people see on their "for you page."

"They can tweak the algorithm in ways that may be helpful to them and harmful to us. It looks like they've done this around certain political subjects, and they have the potential to do much more," he said.

He noted that there are also concerns about TikTok having access to user data but said the concerns should apply to other social media companies, as well.

Newsweek reached out to Jackson's office for comment via email.

In total, 155 Democrats voted in favor of the bill, while 50 voted against it. On the Republican side, 197 lawmakers supported the legislation, defying former President Donald Trump's opposition, while just 15 opposed the bill.

Representative Robert Garcia told Newsweek that he shares people's concerns about the security of TikTok, but said they weren't considering the impact to the 270 million people who use the app regularly. He pointed to the impact to small business owners who use the app to sell their product and the communication within underrepresented groups.

Representative Matt Gaetz, who also voted against the bill, told Newsweek he was worried that the legislation was "broad" and unavailable for amendments.

"We ought to have the opportunity to present amendments and to have them voted on," Gaetz said.

Jackson also said on Wednesday that a pop-up notification sent by TikTok last week, urging users to call their representatives in Congress to voice their concerns about the bill, "validated everyone's concerns" about the app while not "mentioning anything about the actual intent of the bill."

"I'm amazed someone thought this was a good idea, but it proved the concern wasn't hypothetical. It's real," he said. "They will misinform people on a huge scale, and then use that to manipulate political behavior. Letting that power stay in the hands of an adversarial government, which China definitely is, is inviting them to use that power."

Other Democrats voiced concerns about the bill. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat who has nearly a million followers on TikTok, said she felt the bill was "incredibly rushed" and raised "serious antitrust and privacy questions" in a post to X, formerly Twitter.

"Any national security concerns should be laid out to the public prior to a vote," she said.

Update 03/13/24, 5:31 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include comment from Representatives Garcia and Gaetz.