Rand Paul breaks from GOP to defend TikTok ban

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has come out against the ban on TikTok, breaking from his GOP colleagues on a measure that would prohibit the use of the often-criticized social media app.

Paul said in an opinion piece published Wednesday in the Courier-Journal that the Chinese government censorship would be mimicked by banning TikTok. He said he would defend the app even against members of his party and that he would ban the viral video app as a free speech issue.

Paul wrote that saner minds will reflect on which is more dangerous: videos of teenagers dancing or the precedent of the U.S. government banning speech. It is an easy answer, I will defend the Bill of Rights against all comers, even if they are members of my own party. He said if you don't like TikTok or Facebook or YouTube, don't use them. You don't think that any interpretation of the Constitution gives you the right to ban them. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. A vocal critic of TikTok plans to introduce legislation that would ban the app in the US on Wednesday, a move that he hopes to pass by unanimous consent, a spokesman for his office said. A bipartisan group of senators unveiled legislation that would give President Joe Biden the authority to ban the app earlier this month. The opposition of Paul and some Democrats makes passage unlikely.

Last week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the House Energy and Commerce CommitteeHouse Energy and Commerce Committee for about five hours. Senators grilled Chew on issues of data privacy and censorship. A number of key senators said that Chew had not calmed their fears about the app's potential misuse by the Chinese government.

Since then, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, said the chamber will be moving forward with legislation to regulate the Chinese-owned app.

The question of whether or not to legislate TikTok has raised fears that it will harm electability for both parties if they ban the app, a favorite among the younger generation.

Congressional Republicans have come up with a national strategy to permanently lose elections for a generation: Ban of a social media app called TikTok that 94 million, mainly young Americans, use, according to Paul.