Dem lawmaker opposing TikTok ban claims it's 'better, more educational' than Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., told MSNBC host Jen Psaki on Sunday that the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok is a "better product" than Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

"In my opinion, TikTok is just better product period. Then Facebook, then Instagram, then Twitter, it's a better product," he told Psaki. 

He said it was a better product to reach people and connect with people and added that he gets much less "hate" on TikTok. 

"I get much less hate and vitriol on TikTok, it's more enjoyable to engage with, it's more education, and it feels to me like it's a much better product," he continued. 

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Psaki asked Bowman if there was anything he could "learn" about what China has access to with regard to TikTok that would prompt him to support a ban. 

"I haven’t seen an evidence of Chinese espionage," he said. "There has not been top secret congressional briefing on what China is doing with TikTok. We’ve never had that." 

"At the same time, Facebook, in real time, ignored Russian interference in our 2016 elections. Like that happened, that is fact, that's documented, but we had no conversation about banning Facebook so we just need to be honest about what is happening," he added. 

Bowman spoke at a news conference on Capitol Hill in March and came out against a TikTok ban. 

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Before the press conference, Bowman dismissed criticism of the app as "xenophobic."

"There are many apps on our phones right now that are Chinese apps. And so the idea that, ‘Oh, TikTok is the boogeyman’ — it’s just part of a political fearmongering that’s happening," the far-left member of Congress told NBC News in March. 

Bowman compared criticism of the app to GOP "fearmongering" on the idea of an "open border" and the debt limit. He also said it had to do with "xenophobia around China."

Bowman claimed during the press conference on Capitol Hill that Republicans want to ban TikTok because they don't have "swag."

"Republicans ain't got no swag," Bowman, alongside a group of TikTok influencers, said at the press conference. "That's why they want to ban TikTok."

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