The U.S. House voted on Wednesday to force TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell the cell phone app or be banned in the United States.
Charlotte Democratic Congressman Jeff Jackson, a prolific Tik Tok user, voted in favor of the ban. Republican Congressman Dan Bishop of Union County — who has criticized Jackson over using the app — voted no.
Jackson and Bishop are running against each other for North Carolina Attorney General. And Bishop has made Jackson’s TikTok use a campaign issue against him, sending out a news release last year, "Welcoming the Chinese social media star to the race."
But Bishop said right before he voted that having the federal government ban the platform would violate the First Amendment. In the past, Bishop has objected to the U.S. government trying to influence social media companies about what content to allow.
"I don’t use Tik Tok," he said, "I think it’s ill-advised to do so. Members of this body are famous on Tik Tok, and I think that’s unwise. But I respect the choices of 170 million users in the United States."
Jackson, who has 2.5 million TikTok followers, uses the app to communicate with voters even as both Republicans and Democrats have criticized it.
In a statement, Jackson said ByteDance needs to sell its shares, so that Tik Tok continues to operate but isn’t owned by an adversarial government.
President Trump once favored banning TikTok, but recently reversed his position, saying that would only help Facebook.