Democrats don’t think a TikTok ban will alienate young voters — are they right?

Democratic Senators say they did not think that they will face a backlash for voting for legislation that could potentially lead to a ban on TikTok. But it’s unclear whether they are correct.

The Senate voted late Tuesday evening to advance a $95 billion aid package that provided assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. The package also included legislation passed by the House that would force TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell TikTok. If ByteDance cannot divest, TikTok would be banned in the United States.

Banning TikTok has long been a priority of both Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers argue that ByteDance is based in China and is therefore effectively controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Former president Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban TikTok in 2019, but a court blocked the order in late 2020.

Since then, Trump has changed his opinion on the app, saying he opposes a ban on the grounds that it would benefit companies like Meta, owner of Facebook. On Monday, Trump sought to remind young voters on his Truth Social network that Biden would be responsible for a TikTok ban.

“Just so everyone knows, especially the young people, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” he wrote. “He is the one pushing it to close, and doing it to help his friends over at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and able to continue to fight, perhaps illegally, the Republican Party.”

But Democratic Senators seemed unfazed when speaking on Tuesday ahead of the vote.

“This is a divestiture, this is not a ban,” Senator Mark Warner, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told The Independent. Before working in politics, Mr Warner made millions as an early investor in mobile phones.

“I