Rep. Greg Stuebe on Wednesday bashed the House bill that seeks to force the sale of TikTok, if the company does not voluntarily cut ties with its Chinese parent firm.
The bill passed overwhelmingly, by a 352-65 margin. It now goes to the Senate. President Joe Biden has said he will sign it, if passed.
Steube questioned the wisdom of empowering Biden, who has already and repeatedly shown a willingness to sic the Department of Justice on his political foes, with the authority to decide which social media companies may be influenced by foreign interests.
Read: U.S. House Passes Bill To Ban TikTok. Proceeds To Senate
“Why would Congress give more power to a private company to shut down a private company?” the Sarasota Republican said during an interview with Newsmax.
Steube recalled how aggressively the Deep State went after Trump and his allies over the phony Russia-collusion claims. The feds asserted for nearly all of Trump’s presidency that he was in league with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, despite an utter lack of evidence to support that.
“What is to say that the president and this DOJ – who goes after school boards as domestic terrorists, who’s using financial information of gun owners to investigate their financial purchases – aren’t going to use this new power … to ‘go after a person subject to the direction or control of a foreign person or entity,’” said Stuebe, as he read from the proposed bill.
Steube suggested that once given this authority, Biden could easily claim that other social media platforms, including Truth Social, the platform owned by former President Donald Trump, or Elon Musk’s X, should be shut down or sold off.
Steube also addressed the flawed bill in a thread on X.
Read: Left-Wing Media Blitz Sought To Sack New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers
“There is no doubt about it: TikTok is a dangerous app controlled by Chinese interests. However, that does not mean the bill in front of the House today is the appropriate solution to the national security threat TikTok imposes,” he wrote.
“I’ve read the bill and am extremely concerned its text could be weaponized against conservatives and social media sites like @X and Truth Social. … Ambiguity in the law opens the door to abuse.”
“It goes beyond TikTok and foreign adversaries. It has the potential to affect American-owned companies,” he continued.
“Since the 2016 Presidential election, Biden and his left-wing allies relentlessly perpetrated the #RussiaHoax falsely accusing President Trump of being a tool of a corrupt Russian regime,” he noted. “The Left has also decided that @elonmusk is a Russian puppet and is throwing out wild accusations that his companies have allowed the Russian military to access his Starlink service.”
“This bill’s language hands over the power to Biden and the left-wing radicals to determine if @X and/or Truth Social are ‘subject to the direction or control’ of Russians, thus weaponizing the federal government against these companies without proving anything,” Steube posted.
Read: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio Urges Senate Action Following House TikTok Vote
“If you think this hypothetical is far-fetched, I simply ask: what from the past 8 years gives you any confidence that President Biden and the Democrats will not abuse this authority and weaponize it against conservatives?”
“This isn’t just about TikTok, it’s about political power,” he concluded. “Giving Biden’s DOJ more authority to target speech they don’t agree with right before the presidential election is a dangerous move.”
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