On March 13, the United States House of Representatives approved legislation that could potentially lead to TikTok’s ban. The “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” would require ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, to sell the highly successful video platform to another company or risk the app’s ban in the US.
The bill passed on a 352-65 vote with bipartisan support. It pulled in the usual tech-fearing ghouls like Kentucky Republican Harold Rogers and California Democrat Nancy Pelosi. But there were also some surprising supporters of the bill, including members of Congress who supported the app and have used it to connect directly with constituents.
The most successful has been North Carolina Democrat Jeff Jackson. Jackson amassed 2.3 million followers on the platform by promising to give a never-before-seen insight into the political process. He pulled in millions of views by talking candidly about late-night congressional Zoom calls to avoid financial collapse, the “fake anger” of some of his colleagues, and his desire to run for his state’s Attorney General.
The goodwill overflowed — until TikTok discovered that Jackson had voted yes on the bill that could ban the platform.
After the vote, Jeff Jackson posted a now-deleted video claiming that there is “a serious concern that the Chinese government can influence what you see on your For You page” and that TikTok “will misinform people on a huge scale and then manipulate political behavior.”
Bytedance CEO Shou Chew has repeatedly told Congress that ByteDance is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government. According to the Intercept, U.S. Intelligence has “produced no evidence that (TikTok) has ever coordinated with Beijing.”
Over the next week following his vote, Jeff Jackson lost over 200,000 TikTok followers, according to SocialBlade. Users flooded the app with stitches and takes on the situation. One said Jeff Jackson “lost all credibility.” Another said, “As someone who won their fame on TikTok, we expected better.” …
