The "Defender" of Internet Marco Rubio Seeks to Censor Tik Tok

Several U.S. Congress representatives, among them Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi and the anti-Cuban senator Marco Rubio presented a bill on Tuesday aimed at banning TikTok in the North American country.

According to a report by RT, the promoters of the initiative, ByteDance, the parent company of the social network, is forced to send the personal data of its users to Chinese authorities.

Mike Gallagher called TikTok "digital fentanyl" and drew parallels to the Cold War.

"Allowing this application to continue to function would be similar to allowing the USSR to buy the New York Times, Washington Post and the major broadcast networks during the Cold War," he compared.

For his part, Rubio stated that "The federal government has not yet taken a single significant action to protect American users from the threat of TikTok. This is not about creative videos, but about an application that is collecting the data of dozens millions of American children and adults every day. We know that's being used to manipulate news feeds and influence elections," Rubio said, calling the company a "puppet company of the Communist Party of China."

Curiously, Marco Rubio has been a staunch defender of the United States government increasing Internet access to Cuba for subversive purposes.

One day after the riots in Cuba on July 11^th, 2021, incited to a large extent through U.S. social media, Rubio urged President Biden to make it "an urgent priority for the United States to facilitate access to open and free satellite internet on the island of Cuba". The request was reiterated on the Senate floor that same day, and on July 14^th, Rubio sent another letter in which he outlined several options the administration could take. Rubio's office met with the White House on the issue and continues to speak with various companies with the capacity to help Cubans communicate freely.

Apparently, U.S. citizens, whom Marco Rubio supposedly represents, do not have the same right as Cubans when it comes to accessing social networks that are not U.S.-owned companies.

By the way, the very "informative" internet, which both the Florida Republican defends to be used as a weapon of media warfare against Cuba, does not include any statement by the senator about the mismanagement of Twitter, much less about the Cambridge Analytica scandal where it was more than proven that Facebook committed the same sin that today the anti-Cuban mobster and other semi-fascists of his lineage accuse Tik Tok of today.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / CubaSí Translation Staff