Tucker Carlson addressed some of the provisions slipped into proposed legislation to ban TikTok that would give the federal government unprecedented power to surveil and arrest American citizens.
“So, one of the bills that would ban TikTok is being pushed, as we said, by senators in both parties is called the Restrict Act,” Carlson noted. “Mark Warner of Virginia and John Thune of South Dakota, Democrat and Republican, introduced this legislation. Now, the bill is ostensibly a protecting American national security and ending ‘foreign adversaries’ from interfering in our elections through apps like TikTok because, of course, election interference by Twitter and Facebook is no problem at all.”
Carlson continued, “But election interference from TikTok is totally unacceptable. OK. But in reality, and you should know this, if you’re opposed to TikTok as we are, This bill isn’t really about banning TikTok. It’s never about what they say it is.”
“Instead, this bill would give enormous and terrifying new powers to the federal government to punish American citizens and regulate how they communicate with one another,” Carlson said.
One section of the bill discussed by Carlson would regulate “certain transactions between persons in the United States and foreign adversaries,” defining such transactions as “any acquisition, importation, transfer, installation, dealing in or use of any information and communications technology, product or service, including ongoing activities such as mandated services, data transmission, software updates, repairs, or the provision of data hosting services.”
“Well, that’s pretty broad,” Carlson noted.
“So, if the Biden administration decides that you’re doing this, then the secretary of commerce can then enforce ‘any mitigation measure to address any risk arising from any covered transaction with any person or with respect to any property subject to the jurisdiction of the United States,'” Carlson quoted from the legislation. ”
“Oh, these covered transactions can involve ‘current past or potential future transactions’ and the mitigation measures include, but are not limited to, throwing American citizens in prison for 20 years,” he added.
The scope of powers that the bill would grant the Biden administration has been the cause of concern for many on social media.
The bill to ban TikTok is absolutely terrifying. It gives the government the ability to go after anyone they deem as a national security risk at which point they can access everything from their computer to video games to their ring light.
This is a Patriot Act for the internet. pic.twitter.com/uYea49F1b1
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 28, 2023
In addition to the 20-year prison sentence, individuals can also be fined up to $1 million.
“So, you would be allowing the executive branch, the Biden administration, to regulate speech on the Internet and if you are somehow involved with a “foreign adversary” or let’s say you oppose the war against Russia, you’re going to prison for 20 years,” Carlson concluded. “So, this isn’t about banning TikTok. This is about introducing flat out totalitarianism into our system.”