Here’s What Texas Politicians Have Said About TikTok

If you’ve been living under a rock, you may be unfamiliar with TikTok, the social media app that deals in instant gratification by way of short-form videos. If you’re one of the 170 million users, you may fear that your favorite pastime will soon be banned in an upcoming Supreme Court vote. And if you’re Sen. Ted Cruz, you’re probably getting ready to pop the cork on a bottle of Champagne.

Rumors of a TikTok ban have arisen countless times over the last few years. The platform has been a cause for concern for lawmakers, despite several politicians having verified accounts and using the app as a campaign tool. During his first term as president, Donald Trump vowed to ban the app, a mission he has since backtracked on. 

The app is owned by ByteDance Ltd., a Beijing-based tech company that Republicans have flagged as a Trojan horse for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). TikTok, noted for superior data analyses and algorithms used to perfectly curate a personalized timeline for each user, has continuously been marked as a threat to security.

Last April, the Biden-Harris administration prevailed on Congress to pass the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFFACAA), banning social networking apps operated by “foreign adversaries.” The bill conveniently bans TikTok, the only massively popular social media app operated overseas, without naming it.

ByteDance Ltd. promptly sued the United States. The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission filed a countersuit against ByteDance Ltd. The issue was escalated to the Supreme Court, which will decide if the law banning the app is constitutional. Unless ByteDance Ltd. fully divests in TikTok – a condition set by the PAFFACAA allows social networks to continue to operate in the U.S. as long as the “foreign adversaries” are no longer stockholders – the app will be banned on Jan. 19.

The opposition to TikTok is bipartisan, and the app has few supporters. Here’s what lawmakers and other prominent politicians have said about the app:

President-elect Donald Trump

“As far as TikTok is concerned, we’re banning them from the United States,” Trump said to reporters on July 31, 2020. A week later he issued an executive order doing just that. Federal courts blocked the order.

In June 2024, the president joined the app, filming a clip at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event. Trump said he was “honored” to join the app he once attempted to eradicate. His verified account has more than 14 million followers, although he hasn’t posted since the election. He has since declared his defense of the app, and even personally asked the Supreme Court to delay the ban until he takes office.

“For all of those that want to save TikTok in America, vote for Trump,” Trump said on his privately owned social networking service Truth Social. “The other side’s closing it up but I am now a big star on TikTok.”

Trump launched Truth Social after he was banned from both Facebook and Twitter. When Elon Musk, a strong ally of the president, purchased Twitter and rebranded the app as X, he reinstated Trump’s account. But the business-mogul-turned-politician is still an outspoken hater of Facebook.

“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz

One of the most vocal opponents of TikTok is Sen. Ted Cruz, who frequently takes to X to condemn the social networking site. Cruz is one of many politicians who say the app is a national security threat led by the CCP. Cruz also criticized the app’s content and the app’s effect on young audiences.

Young people are susceptible to TikTok propaganda praising Osama bin Laden because they have been taught Cultural Marxist propaganda from the womb.

Cultural Marxism is destroying our society, & my book Unwoke has the cure.#Verdicthttps://t.co/25x3O83yofhttps://t.co/ahh3asuwd5

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 22, 2023

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

In 2022, Gov. Greg Abbott lead Texas to join several other states in banning TikTok on government-issued devices over concerns with the CCP’s ties to the app.

“The security risks associated with the use of TikTok on devices used to conduct the important business of our state must not be underestimated or ignored,” said Abbott in a statement. “Owned by a Chinese company that employs Chinese Communist Party members, TikTok harvests significant amounts of data from a user’s device, including details about a user’s internet activity.”

Texas has taken action to protect our state from interference by the Chinese Communist Party.

Laws I signed stop China from accessing our power grid, ban TikTok for state agencies & public universities, & more.

President Biden must do the same for our nation as a whole. pic.twitter.com/N0ROVC2yeJ

— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) July 17, 2023

Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton

Another harsh critic of the app, Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton has sued TikTok several times. His latest suit holds the company liable for exposing minors to explicit content.

Chinese Communist spyware company TikTok may be complicit in child exploitation, sex trafficking, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and other horrors. Today my office officially issued investigative demands on them.

I’m going to get to the bottom of this. #tiktok https://t.co/ImgOoYknQB

— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) February 18, 2022

“TikTok actively worked to deceive parents and lure children onto their app despite the presence of an overwhelming amount of profane and illicit material,” Paxton said in a statement.

Colin Allred

Despite using TikTok during his bid for senator, Colin Allred, a Dallas Democrat who was defeated by Cruz for the Senate in November, voted in favor of banning the app while a member of the House of Representatives. Allred’s account, managed by his campaign staff, has not posted since he lost the election.