Fight for the Future (FFTF), a digital rights group, launched a campaign to urge Congress not to ban TikTok after the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed legislation that would allow President Joe Biden to do just that.
The campaign, #DontBanTikTok, “explains why efforts to ban TikTok are unserious and distract from policy priorities,” the group said in a press release.
“If it weren’t so alarming, it would be hilarious that U.S. policymakers are trying to ‘be tough on China’ by acting exactly like the Chinese government,” FFTF director Evan Greer said in the release.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee passed legislation Wednesday along party lines that would grant Biden the authority to ban TikTok, highlighting statements from Democrats that called TikTok dangerous and asking them to join the effort.
Fight for the Future said that Congress is trying to appeal to anti-Chinese sentiment in the country, but that banning the app is “deeply counterproductive” and moves the country “away from online safety and human rights, not toward it.”
The campaign launched earlier this week and constituents can sign a petition to ask their representatives to commit to not banning the popular social media app.
Fight for the Future is not the only advocacy group opposed to the proposed legislation.
Yesterday, after the legislation passed out of committee, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released a letter condemning the Foreign Affairs Committee for voting to approve the bill.
“We’re disappointed that the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted to approve a bill that would effectively ban TikTok in the United States, in violation of Americans’ First Amendment rights,” Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at ACLU said in a press release. “We urge legislators to vote no on this vague, overbroad, and unconstitutional bill.”
Similarly, David Greene, Civil Liberties Director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), told the National Journal that “anything that has the effect of saying American people cannot use TikTok is going to have to survive First Amendment scrutiny.”
Greene elaborated on Twitter, adding that if the U.S. knows that TikTok is a “pathway to Chinese access to U.S. user data” they need to prove that and adequately address it with the ban, or it fails to meet First Amendment scrutiny.
The bill still has hurdles to get over, however. It must pass a vote from the full House and the Democrat-controlled Senate before reaching Biden, who has been noncommittal on banning the app.
