Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has just walked herself right into a scandal.
Recently Tik Tok’s CEO when to congress, and it didn’t go well. That led to more Republicans and Democrats moving to ban the social media app in the United States.
So what does AOC do? Create a TikTok account and praise the company.
ICYMI: @AOC has joined tiktok to talk about tiktok — & she’s spot on📲🫡👏pic.twitter.com/QwqsXNWq94
— Annie Wu (all socials: @annie_wu_22) (@Annie_Wu_22) March 25, 2023
Why now, when government officials are banning the company from being on official use devices?
A Fox News report discovered that TikTok’s parents company, Bytedance, donated $150,000 to the Hispanic congressional Caucus foundation in December of 2022.
From Fox News:
ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, funneled six-figure contributions to nonprofits aligned with the congressional Black and Hispanic Caucuses, disclosures show.
ByteDance donated $150,000 to both the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Foundation in December, its lobbying contribution report shows. It also transferred smaller amounts of $75,000 to the Asian Pacific Institute for Congressional Studies in December and $35,000 to the right-leaning Ripon Society last summer.
The Beijing-based company reported the donations as honoring congressional members on the nonprofits’ aligned Black, Hispanic, and Asian Pacific American Caucuses, the disclosures show. Additionally, they honored the Ripon Society’s congressional advisory board, which includes numerous Republican lawmakers.
…
It’s unclear why ByteDance’s most significant donations went to the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. The company did not respond to a Fox News Digital inquiry on its donations, and the nonprofits who received cash did not respond to requests for comment.
However, banning TikTok may feel good beware of the Restrict Act sponsored by U.S. Sens. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and John Thune (R-SD).
It’s a total takeover of free speech on the internet that will allow the federal government to detain Americans if they don’t like their speech.
“Today, the threat that everyone is talking about is TikTok, and how it could enable surveillance by the Chinese Communist Party, or facilitate the spread of malign influence campaigns in the U.S. Before TikTok, however, it was Huawei and ZTE, which threatened our nation’s telecommunications networks. And before that, it was Russia’s Kaspersky Lab, which threatened the security of government and corporate devices,” said Sen. Warner. “We need a comprehensive, risk-based approach that proactively tackles sources of potentially dangerous technology before they gain a foothold in America, so we aren’t playing Whac-A-Mole and scrambling to catch up once they’re already ubiquitous.”
“Congress needs to stop taking a piecemeal approach when it comes to technology from adversarial nations that pose national security risks,” said Sen. Thune. “This bipartisan legislation would take a necessary step to ensure consumers’ information and our communications technology infrastructure is secure.”
The bill gives the federal government the authority of all forms of communication, domestic and abroad. If they don’t like what blogs say, you can be detained and, if convicted, face up to 20 years in prison. It also allows the federal government to determine what is a threat with minimal congressional oversight.
So what happens if you are designated a national security threat? What can they access of yours to confirm it? Everything.
Notice the preemptive attack on quantum encryption in there, too. pic.twitter.com/rXMY8v8lOI— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
If you recall from before, “Foreign Individuals” can now also be US citizens that are deemed a national security threat. Once designated, the bill grants authority to enforce any action deemed necessary to mitigate the threat, with no due process and few limits on punishments. pic.twitter.com/8IreN90m88
— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
After the federal government has detained you without due process to mitigate the “immediate threat” you pose, what kind of punishments await you in court? $1,000,000 fine, 20 years in prison and forfeiture of everything you own. pic.twitter.com/072BG6POTk
— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
— Mises Caucus (@LPMisesCaucus) March 26, 2023
