LogFAQs > #979347366

UT1999 posted...

but why were like almost all republicans so much more against it? Do you believe that they thought it was a security issue...etc...?

I mean, I think it's because Republicans have been primed to be against anything they see connected to China for years now. Trump starting a trade war with them, then Trump calling COVID the "China virus" (which he's broken out again in recent days) to stoke racism/deflect blame from his grievous mishandling of it.

And so this bill presents them an opportunity to do something they can go on TV/to voters and say "I fought back against China." I'm honestly pretty skeptical of the security issue argument when they're coming down on just TikTok and not crafting legislation that would address the same behavior from all social media companies.

When they banned it from use by certain government employees - that I could at least get in terms of a national security perspective but this... not so much. Or rather, that that's the motive behind this bill.