WASHINGTON — It’s the rare issue that has achieved consensus from a broad and disparate body of Washington: Republicans and Democrats, human rights advocates and foreign policy hawks alike.

It gained palpable momentum this winter and into the spring as a handful of states began taking action and Congress prepared to move toward a formative vote.

TikTok – the world’s most popular app, beloved by Generation Z – was “near its endgame,” according to one of the most prominent tech writers.

Then, Rand Paul put out word: He was heading to the floor of the U.S. Senate to object to a move to banish the Chinese-owned video app.

It was a moment instructive of the power of a single senator – and the resilience of Paul’s constitutional-rooted conservatism.

“We should not let fear of Communism to cause us to ignore our First Amendment protections of speech,” Paul said in his Senate floor speech last month outlining his opposition to a TikTok ban. “Have faith that our desire for freedom is strong enough to survive a few dance videos.”

Advocates of a ban argue the addictive algorithmic videos are just a mirage for the odious intentions of China: To spy on Americans, collect their data and manipulate their social media feeds.

“The Chinese Communist Party has a hundred years of excellence in lying, cheating, and stealing their way to advantage and in undermining their opponents with asymmetric approaches to engagement. They are also the global masters at information manipulation,” said Greg Autry, a former White House liaison to NASA who pushed for a ban while serving the Trump administration.

“Opening our market of ideas to invasion from abroad while U.S. social media firms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn are all illegal in China is just plain bad business policy and shouldn’t require any more explanation than that,” he added. “However, given China’s nefarious behavior we can be sure they will seek to use this unbalanced field to subvert our society.”

Paul, who does not use the app, believes the fact that it is banned in China is a fundamental undergirding argument for why America should allow it.

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