Hawley’s push for TikTok ban blocked on senate floor despite spike in pro-Hamas content

WASHINGTON — Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) delivered remarks on the Senate floor and again called for unanimous consent on his bill, the No TikTok on United States Devices Act, which would prohibit TikTok from operating in the United States and ban commercial activity with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. The renewed push to ban the app comes amid the increase in anti-Israel, pro-Hamas content on the platform.

“TikTok has become a haven for antisemitic content, a haven for propaganda, for genocide. […] As virulent and offensive as this content is, that is not a reason to ban them. The real reason to ban TikTok is that it is a spy app for the Chinese Communist Government,” said Senator Hawley.

Senator Hawley’s call to unanimously pass the bill was objected to by Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

Background:

Yesterday, Senator Hawley sent a letter to to Secretary of the Treasury and Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) Chairwoman Janet Yellen, urging her to conclude CFIUS’ review of TikTok and to ban all ByteDance-controlled apps currently available to U.S. users.

In March, Senator Hawley’s call to unanimously pass the bill, and his call to schedule a vote on the bill, were both objected to by Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

In January, Senator Hawley introduced the No TikTok on United States Devices Act to prohibit TikTok from operating in the United States and ban commercial activity with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance.

Last year, Senator Hawley’s No TikTok on Government Devices Act prohibiting TikTok on federal government devices was signed into law. It went into effect at the beginning of March.