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Of TikToks 150 million American users, there may be none more valuable to the embattled platform right now than Representative Jamaal Bowmanof New York.

A backbench Democrat, Mr. Bowman commands neither TikToks largest following (he has about 159,000 fans) nor exceptional legislative clout. But in recent days, he has gone where almost no one else on Capitol Hill would, appointing himself the platforms unofficial defender in face of a bipartisan race to target what President Biden sees as a national security threat.

Why the hell are we whipping ourselves into a hysteria to scapegoat TikTok? Mr. Bowman asked in a telephone interview as he traveled by train to Washington on Wednesday.

Hours later, he held a news conference outside the House touting the platforms virtues, alongside dozens of influencersbroughtin by TikTok for a day of lobbying ahead of Thursdays congressional hearing with its chief executive. Only two other Democrats attended, while some of the congressmans most outspoken allies declined to weigh in, like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a fellow member of the group of left-leaning lawmakers known as the squad.

It is not hard to see why. Mr. Biden and prominent congressional leaders have locked arms around the idea thatthe platform, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, poses a serious national security threat at a time of growing competition with China. They are now looking to ban the video app from devices nationwide, or at least to force TikToks owners to sell to prevent Chinas leaders from gaining access to a trove of data onAmericans daily lives or being able to use the popular platformas a disinformation tool.

Mr. Bowman, who posts short videos under the handle repbowman, said the issue was being warped byWashington groupthink. He argued that the Biden administration had yet to produce meaningful evidence that the platform was being manipulated by Chinese authorities and said that he feared it was being singled out amid xenophobic anti-China rhetoric.

The apps opponents in Washington warn that Beijing could use Chinese laws to force TikTok to hand over user data of American consumers. They have also hammered the app over ByteDances admission that some of its employees gained access to the data of U.S. users, including reporters who cover the company, while investigating leaks of internal corporate information.

Mr. Bowman said he wants to see Congress take a more holistic approach to regulating social media giants rather than just targeting one company. We didnt talk about a ban on Facebook after Russia used it to influence the 2016 election, he said.

But his unexpected campaign has left many of his colleagues baffledor outright hostile, particularly as some of his arguments have echoed TikToks own talking points.

Anyone defending TikTok is either too caught up in being a social media celebrity or theyve been brainwashed by the Chinese governments propaganda, said Representative Josh Gottheimer, a moderate New Jersey Democrat in favor of banning the app or forcing its sale. Both put our national security at risk.

As scrutiny over TikToks practices has grown, the platform has built a multimillion-dollar lobbying operation led by former congressional aides. In recent weeks, its staffers have accompanied its chief executive, Shou Chew, around Capitol Hill as he told lawmakers about the benefits of a plan to store the apps data with an American company.

We appreciate the support of these members of Congress, and we will remain steadfast in our commitment to building a safe, secure and innovative platform, a TikTok spokesman, Jamal Brown, said.

Mr. Bowman, who shuns corporate political donations, insisted he had never taken a meeting with anyone who works for TikTok. But one of his aides said that the company did help facilitate a meeting that Mr. Bowman had with influencers it paid to travel to Washington to talk up the platforms benefits to lawmakers.

As for Wednesdays news conference, Mr. Bowman agreed to hold it after a representative of the company told his office that the influencers were looking to address reporters on Capitol Hill to cap off their visit. A TikTok spokesman was later on hand to help wrangle reporters.

Mr. Bowman does have some allies. It is fantastic that Bowman is speaking out for the 150 million Americans that use this app and whose rights hes trying to protect, saidJenna Leventoff of the American Civil Liberties Union.

A former middle school principal in the Bronx, Mr. Bowman, 46, first won his Westchester County-based seatin 2020 afterupsettinga three-decade incumbentfrom the left and has sought to push his party in that direction.

He said he has come to see the value of the platform, particularly to communicate with young constituents and activists. Telegenic and gregarious, he posts on weighty topics like Alaskan oil drilling and transgender rights but also trolls Republicans.

A recent selection shows the congressman ranking legendary hip-hop songs in his Washington office (he put Nuthin but a G Thang by Dr. Dre as No. 1), playfully shaving his head before a hearing (Gotta make sure the baldys looking fresh and clean) and packing up a box of books to send to Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to help him on his anti-racist journey.

He saidhe decided to become more active on issues of data privacy and monopolies after reading two books about the inner workings of Facebook last fall. But his stance may be equally tied to foreign policy views that are much to the left of the Democratic or Republican mainstream.

Mr. Bowman and other progressives bucked party leadership in January to vote against the creation of a House select committee on strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and he generally opposes bipartisan defense policy bills.(He also voted against Mr. Bidens signature 2021 infrastructure bill.)

Im concerned mostly with our own affairs here in America, he said. The West in general has had a huge footprint in world affairs. The us-against-them ideology is killing everyone.

Wednesdays news conference took place at a podium adorned with a Keep TikTok sign. Mr. Bowman, accompanied by Representatives Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and Robert Garcia of California, traded testimonials with the influencers.

C-SPAN was on hand to capture it all, as were some of the TikTokers at the news conference, who held up phones to record videos that were likely to be destined for a far wider audience.

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Tiktoks Lonely Progressive Defender: New Yorks Jamaal Bowman - The New York Times