Representative Nancy Mace was mocked on social media after a short video went viral over her reasoning for voting against a bill that could ban popular platform TikTok, but her office lashed out, telling Newsweek that the report was “hastily concocted” from a soundbite on CNN.
Only 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against the measure and it passed in the House of Representatives with a vote of 352 to 65 Wednesday. If approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden, the legislation would “incentivize divestment of TikTok” by excluding it from mobile app stores in the United States and establish executive branch powers to target social media companies controlled by a “foreign adversary.” Biden has said that he will sign the legislation if Congress sends it to his desk.
Shortly after the bill’s passage in the lower chamber, Mace, a South Carolina Republican and ally of former President Donald Trump, spoke with CNN on her decision to vote against the measure.
CNN’s Manu Raju asked Mace if she opposed the bill because of Trump’s criticism of the measure.
“I’ve been against this from the very beginning before anyone else weighed in. It’s the libertarian in me,” Mace said. “It’s not the role of government to ban apps from the App Store. Nowhere in our Constitution does it say that.”
A clip of her exchange with CNN was shared on X, formerly Twitter, where people were quick to mock the lawmaker. The 15-second video, shared by X user Acyn, went quickly viral, amassing hundreds of comments and nearly 140,000 views just hours after being shared on Wednesday.
X user Rick Britt posted: “How did they miss the App Store when they wrote the Constitution?”
Another social media user, Bruce Goldberg, wrote on X: “The constitution doesn’t address banning apps? Who knew???”
Meacham, an X user who identifies as “Proud Liberal Vermin” on the platform, also took to social media to mock Mace.
“‘Nowhere in the Constitution’ does it say that government can ban apps from the App Store,” Meacham posted. “Great point, Nancy. I wonder why.”
Social media user, RollWithIt, posted on X: “It’s not in the Constitution to ban apps. Those d*** forefathers were worthless at foreseeing the future.”
Anna Moneymaker/Getty
In an emailed response to Newsweek’s request for an interview or comment, Mace’s office said: “This entire piece seems to have been hastily concocted from a fleeting 15-second CNN soundbite. If you’re genuinely seeking insight into Rep. Mace’s stance on the TikTok ban, it might be wiser to check her Twitter than rely on such shallow reporting.”
Mace urged her colleagues in Congress to “resist knee-jerk reactions” and condemned the measure as “an alarming trend toward government overreach reminiscent of authoritarian regimes.”
“Banning TikTok is beating the same drum as other communist countries controlling what content we are able to see,” Mace said in a statement. “Let’s not give the government any more power to control social media.”
Lawmakers say that the bill would compel TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest from and sell TikTok, a popular social media application that has sparked privacy concerns due to the company’s alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party. ByteDance and other critics of the bill have argued that the measure would essentially be a ban on the app as well as raise concerns about freedom of speech.
In the statement which describes Mace as a “staunch advocate for digital rights and individual freedoms,” the Republican congresswoman also warned of possible consequences of a TikTok ban, including “the threat of a surveillance state and a step toward increased government control and socialism.”
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.