TikTok Is a Cancer. Here’s How We Can End It

The following article by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is sponsored by Cotton for Senate.

TikTok is a cancer on our society. It’s a tool to corrupt and indoctrinate our kids. It’s a propaganda and spy app for Communist China. It needs to be banned, not just from all government devices, but from the entire United States.

I have a bill in the U.S. Senate, the SAFETY on Social Media Act, that would wipe out TikTok’s threat. Here’s why we must get it done:

For starters, TikTok targets American kids of all ages with insidious content.

If you’re a 14-year old boy with a new phone and TikTok account, you may be served videos showing violent pornography. If you’re a 14-year old girl, you may see videos about body image issues and encouragement to try so-called gender transition surgeries, which are horrific and damaging.

Does Communist China allow TikTok to show the same sort of content to kids in China? Of course not. In China, TikTok pushes videos about respecting your elders and learning math.

TikTok is also hoovering up Americans’ data — and not just the videos you watch or post on the app. It tracks your texts, calls, photographs, and contacts. There are some reports that it may even be able to turn on phones to spy on users.

What does this mean? It means the CCP can blackmail anyone who uses TikTok. They know every text you’ve written and website you’ve visited. They’ll use this to go after kids who become government leaders.

Finally, TikTok has become a real source of news for millions of Americans, and it comes with a Marxist flavor. It’s nothing but CCP propaganda.

During the Cold War, we would’ve never allowed Pravda — Soviet Russia’s media outlet — to gain the kind of stranglehold in America that TikTok has today.

If we wouldn’t let Russian Communists do it, why would we let Chinese Communists?

Making matters worse, Joe Biden and other liberals have rewarded and legitimized TikTok.

Biden dances around the White House with so-called “influencers,” including men who believe they are girls.

Squad member Jamal Bowman said the only reason Republicans want to ban TikTok is because they don’t have “swag.”

Squad leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to TikTok to say it shouldn’t be banned.

And then other Democrats, including members of Biden’s Cabinet, admit they oppose banning TikTok and protecting America’s children because they’re afraid liberal voters will be upset.

You know, the Soviets had a fitting term for the naive westerners they manipulated into pushing their propaganda: useful idiots.

The good news is that the American people are waking up. Recent polling shows that a strong majority agree we should ban TikTok.

My SAFETY on Social Media Act would do so, and here’s how.

First, it would blacklist and sanction social media services, including TikTok, that are controlled by foreign adversaries. They would be removed from app stores, and access to their websites would be blocked.

Second, it would require American companies of these blacklisted platforms to register as foreign agents. It would also block most visas for foreign employees of these companies.

We need to get this done as soon as possible, to protect our privacy and our children.

In the meantime, if you have TikTok on your phone, you should delete it and get yourself a new phone.

And if you want to support my work on the SAFETY on Social Media Act, you can do so here.