Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., warned Republicans that banning TikTok would result in a GOP disaster at the polls for a generation.
Paul made his comments in a column for the Louisville Courier Journal on Wednesday. He wrote: "Congressional Republicans have come up with a national strategy to permanently lose elections for a generation: Ban a social media app called TikTok that 94 million, primarily young Americans, use.
"This GOP strategy comes while polls indicate that 71% of young women and 53% of young men voted for a Democrat candidate for Congress. Now admittedly, many Democrats have joined Republicans in calling for this ban but like most such issues, the blame will stick to Republicans more.
"The banning TikTok strategy also comes while the GOP simultaneously complains of liberal U.S. social media companies canceling and censoring conservatives. So, without a hint of irony, many of these same 'conservatives' now agitate to ban a platform owned by an international group that includes several American investors."
Paul noted that while Republicans complain about censorship, they advocate to censor social media apps that they say are influenced by the Chinese.
"Before banning TikTok, these censors might want to discover that China's government already bans TikTok," he wrote. "Hmmm ... do we really want to emulate China's speech bans?"
Paul questioned what's next if lawmakers ban TikTok.
"Arguably, several domestic apps censor conservatives more," Paul said. "I know, because I've been censored and banned. I've got no love lost for any of these companies. I have a host of complaints about domestic social media platforms that 'cancel' conservatives, but I'm not in favor of banning them or forcing them to accept my opinions."
Paul had ridiculed at attempt by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., on Wednesday to force a vote on legislation to effectively ban the use of the TikTok, decrying it as unconstitutional from a First Amendment perspective.
Speaking on Newsmax's "Eric Bolling The Balance" hours after Paul blocked Hawley's measure with an objection, Paul also suggested it was hypocritical to ban TikTok on concerns that the company's owner, Chinese technology firm ByteDance, shared data with the Chinese government.