The ban on TikTok is "not a suppression of free speech" because China's Communist Party is using the app "to mine data of Americans, perhaps even get state secrets and using that for their purposes," said Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis.
"So I don't view this so much as a free speech issue as I do as protecting our national security," he told Newsmax's "The Chris Salcedo Show" Friday.
The Supreme Court on Friday unanimously upheld the federal law banning TikTok, holding that the risk to national security posed by its ties to China overcomes concerns about limiting speech by the app or its 170 million users in the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump is seeking to protect TikTok and said earlier this week that his administration would "take a look at TikTok.”
"I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points," he said.
"There are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that. TikTok had an impact."
The argument that Google is also selling data to Communist China anyway, Cloud said, "does carry some validity, but I do believe it's a national security concern."
"And all they have to do is divest it. Communist China, all they have to do is divest themselves from TikTok and TikTok can continue. And I think it says a lot when they won't divest it," he added.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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