Rep. Eric Swalwell Claims He Is a No on TikTok Bill Because He’s Concerned About Free Speech

BERMAN: “You have a big day. I mean, Congress has a big day. The House has a big moment where you’re going to vote on this bill on TikTok, that would require it to sever ties with — with ByteDance, which is the Chinese company that owns it. Many people look at this as a TikTok potential ban in the United States. How will you vote on this?”
Swalwell: “I — I don’t like bans on speech, John, and, you know, look, I don’t like the Republican book bans, I don’t like the bans on bodies that Republicans have put in place across the country. And I want to find ways, you know, to — to better — you know, restrict the use of data, without, you know, taking away a platform that so many small businesses rely upon, and — and so many young people, you know, use to communicate. And this would do nothing to look at other social media companies and — you know, and their data. So I — I just — I don’t like bans and speech, John, so it’s going to be hard to support that one.”
BERMAN: “So you’re a ‘no’ vote on this, which, interestingly, for you, put you in the same boat as Donald Trump.”
Swalwell: “Well, it looks like a donor who was invested in TikTok has gotten to Donald Trump if you follow this. I think my reasoning is more around speech, and, you know, small business protection. But again, I understand people are going to come down differently on this. But I — I think there’s better ways to go at this than to do something that China does. If you want to talk about, you know, who bans things, China bans things. China’s a place where you don’t have rights. And I just don’t want to do anything that looks even remotely like China.”
BERMAN: “You have no concerns about China’s potential influence over TikTok?”
Swalwell: “I — I do, and that’s why I think we need to aggressively, you know, monitor that. But, you know, essentially pulling the plug on a — a platform that so many small businesses and young people are relying upon, just seems like a binary choice. And there’s other ways, you know, to address that issue, without, you know, taking this away from so many people, you know, who use it for their livelihood. And again, the State of the Union, by the way, you know, the young people saw the State of the Union, largely through TikTok. So it’s a way where they are receiving information. And I — I think we should just be very careful if we’re going to get in the way of how people are receiving information.”