Gen Z Congressman Maxwell Frost, 27, Warns Biden Could Take a Blow with Young Voters if He Backs a TikTok Ban
- The youngest member of Congress voted against the TikTok bill
- Frost said it doesn’t help young voters, but also argued the ban is bad policy
- The House of Representatives voted 352 to 65 to pass the TikTok bill
- The White House urged “swift action” in the Senate as Biden has said he would sign the bill
Gen Z Congressman Maxwell Frost warns that President Joe Biden could take a hit with young voters by backing a ban on TikTok as Congress moves forward with legislation amid privacy concerns over the app’s ties to China.
The 27-year-old Florida congressman voted against the bill on Wednesday. The legislation would force the app’s Chinese parent company to sell TikTok within 180 days or it would be banned in the United States.
“I don’t think it will be helpful to young voters,” Frost told CNN. He said his argument is not just about young people, he believes the bill is bad policy.
The House passed the bill Wednesday with overwhelming bipartisan support, by a vote of 352 to 65.
Frost, the youngest member of the House of Representatives, said he believes the bill violates America’s First Amendment rights and violates the Constitution.
Gen Z Congressman Maxwell Frost said he had a “no” vote on the TikTok bill, ahead of a vote in the House of Representatives that forced the app’s Chinese parent company to divest or risk a ban in the US.
TikTok advocates gathered outside the Capitol to oppose the bill ahead of Wednesday’s vote
“We’re talking about a platform that allows people to put out information, news and whatever they want,” Frost said before the vote.
He said that no matter how you put it, forcing ByteDance to sell within five months would lead to a ban.
“It is unreasonable to believe that a buyer would be found within 180 days and the deal could move forward, which would result in a ban on TikTok, whether it is banned for a year, two years or six months, a ban is a ban. ‘ he said.
TikTok has 170 million users in the United States. Frost said he hears all the time from young people who get their news directly from TikTok.
‘Now I have to say: am I concerned about the US data? Yes, I am,” he said. ‘But this bill does not solve that problem. Let’s be honest.’
Representative Frost with President Biden at the White House in 2023. Biden said he would sign the TikTok bill if it reached his desk. The congressman said a ban would not help young voters
Lawmakers accused TikTok of providing its U.S. user data to Chinese parent company ByteDance, which they say has ties to the Chinese Communist Party. 170 million people in the US use the app
TikTok sent this notice to users last week after the bill was introduced
But supporters of the bill argue that it won’t ban TikTok, but it will force it to cut ties with the Chinese Communist Party and access to Americans’ personal data.
The bill now heads to the Senate, but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not committed to a vote. He just says the Senate will review it if it comes out of the House of Representatives.
Biden has said he would sign it if the bill lands on his desk, despite his campaign launching the president’s own TikTok account last month.
The White House said Wednesday it wants the Senate to “take swift action.”
It comes as Biden is already losing support among young people ahead of the 2024 elections. Some have expressed frustration over the president’s support for US funding for Israel.
Recent polls continue to show Biden maintaining a lead over Donald Trump among voters aged 18 to 29, but support has declined since Biden was elected in 2020.
As president, Trump issued an executive order declaring TikTok a threat to national security, foreign policy and the U.S. economy.
But ahead of the vote in the House of Representatives, he spoke out against the TikTok bill.
Trump argued last week that a ban on TikTok would help Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.
In an interview with CNBC, Trump also noted that there are a lot of young kids on TikTok who “don’t go crazy.”