Welcome to The Lost Debate, a show for Politically Ecclectics. I'm Ravi Gupta, and today we're going to talk about the TikTok ban floating through Congress.

Woke AI and the controversies over at Google, whether blue cities are turning their backs on progressive policies.

And then the loosening of academic standards all across the country.

We'll talk about all that and more with Stephen Kent, who has been on this podcast quite a few times.

He is the media director at the Consumer Choice Center, which has been intricately involved in this TikTok debate in Congress.

He's also the former host of Rightly, and he is the author of How the Force Can Fix the World, Lessons on Life, Liberty, and Happiness from a galaxy far, far away.

But we're going to have to stay in this galaxy today, Stephen, unfortunately.

You don't want to talk Star Wars, Ravi?

I'm not, I'm not well, well, it's a source subject nowadays, because what does it mean to talk Star Wars? I feel like there's too much to keep up with. Is Ray really a Skywalker, you know, should they be on TikTok themselves? Tough questions. Well, it's great to have you back on here. I've often found myself in the course of the past year, so since I've spoken to you,

just thinking about,

you know, I wonder what Stephen will think because, you know, like Liz Wolfe or Ricky, you're kind of an idiosyncratic conservative, which we like to have, we like to have these political eclectics from the right on this podcast. And you in your organization, the Consumer Choice Center,

you have been in the middle of this debate over TikTok. And just this past week, the House Energy

and Commerce Committee passed 50 to zero a bill that would effectively ban TikTok. And so maybe you

could talk a little bit about what this bill would do,

but it's being framed as an essentially ban. Well, it is being framed as a ban by the propagandists

within TikTok, or I guess we call them PR people. I'm a PR person. That's what we do. But it's their

job. They're calling it a ban, a de facto ban on TikTok.

If TikTok and its owner, Bytance, does not find a U.S. entity to own and operate it within the

United States. So the divestiture bill would essentially force this sale to happen. And if there is not a buyer or a purchase

made within X many days, then yes, TikTok will receive a letter from the House Energy and Commerce

Committee ordering that they cease operations within the United States. Goes down

something more or less like that. But, I mean, this is a huge milestone in this debate, because

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