TikTok Star Apologizes for Voting to Force CCP Divestiture
Jeff Jackson built his political career on the CCP spyware app; now, he's groveling to teenagers about voting to break it up with the CCP
Recent legislation that would force the CCP to break up with TikTok made for some strange bedfellows, with former president Donald Trump joining forces with the Squad in arguing against it, and Jeff Jackson, a Democratic congressman who’s used the platform to jumpstart his career, voting with House GOP leadership to force the divestment.
After voting to force the divestiture, however, Jackson issued a groveling apology on the platform.
“I apologize,” Jackson said. “I did not handle this situation well from top to bottom, and that is why I have been completely roasted on this app over the last 48 hours.” Since coming to Congress last year, Jackson has become something of a star on the app, an irony he acknowledged in his groveling.
“If I were in your shoes, I would probably feel the same way. I would see someone who used this app to build a following and then appears to have voted against it and I would be upset,” Jackson said–he has lost hundreds of thousands of followers since voting for the TikTok legislation, which does not actually ban the CCP-controlled app.
Hilariously, TikTok users are accusing Jackson of voting to force the divestiture to serve the Israel Lobby, under a completely deranged theory that Israel wants to ban TikTok because of how many users back Palestinian terrorism. Jeff Yass, the billionaire, Jewish Republican who is driving some in the GOP to oppose a forced divestment, would probably beg to differ.
One insane kid on the app did have a good point, after he accused Jackson of bowing to the demands of the Israel lobby. In his video, he notes that Jackson claimed that part of his rationale in voting for the TikTok divestment bill was a series of classified briefings that made him realize how problematic the app is–and yet he continues to post groveling apologies on it.
To that end, it’s not surprising to see the insanity of some of the top comments on Jackson’s TikTok, which mostly accuse him of standard stuff–being bought by AIPAC and the like.
Jackson is now running for attorney general against his fellow congressman, Republican Dan Bishop, who, ironically, sided with Trump and opposed the bill last week. To that end, he’s losing hundreds of thousands of followers on the app while also potentially hemorrhaging votes in November.
“It’s shameful to see a member of the United States Congress apologize because of algorithmic manipulation controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. North Carolinians can’t afford an Attorney General so easily manipulated by hostile foreign actors,” a North Carolina-based political operative noted to me. “Through his public career Jeff Jackson has prioritized obtaining social media applause instead of benefiting North Carolinians. A social media influencer has no business as the state's top law enforcement official.”
We’ll see if Jackson posts a happy or sad TikTok on Election Day soon enough!