Attacks on TikTok are "part of an overall hysteria on the hill about China," says Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.). Sensing a Congressional attitude shift on the app after President Donald Trump came to its defense, Paul recently introduced the "Repeal the TikTok Ban Act." Paul's bill would scrap last year's mandate saying that China-based ByteDance must sell off its U.S. TikTok operations or face a ban in this country, a provision that was part of a larger bill known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
The move is part of Paul's broader project of trying to keep alive a "consistently free trade and free markets" wing within the Republican Party. "I don't want that part of the party to die, and [Republicans] just to become the nationalist populist party," Paul tells Reason.
We talked Friday morning about TikTok, the trouble with isolating ourselves from China, Trump's pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, the divisions between conservatives and libertarians on speech, and more. Below is a portion of our conversation, edited for clarity and length.
