“I don’t think anybody’s closing any door at this point,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) told reporters in the Capitol.
Aguilar’s comments came as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been sounding the alarm on TikTok over allegations the app poses national security concerns given its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China.
That criticism reached a boiling point during a hearing with the TikTok CEO last week in the House, where lawmakers on both sides of the aisle grilled the top executive.
But in recent days, prominent liberal lawmakers including Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) have voiced opposition to a TikTok ban.
The liberal members said that American-owned social media platforms raise the same concerns about data privacy and security.
“I am opposed to efforts by some Republicans and Democrats to unilaterally ban an entire social media platform — TikTok,” Omar said in a statement.
Ocasio-Cortez posted a video on TikTok over the weekend voicing her opposition to the ban.
Aguilar said the internal party disagreements have “less to do with ideology and more to do with generation.”
“That’s … the environment that they were raised in, and part of the reason why they came to Congress is to engage and to have these discussions. I don’t begrudge that at all; I think that’s healthy,” he continued.
Read more at TheHill.com.
