Jeff Jackson Doesn’t Deserve the Backlash He’s Receiving for His TikTok Ban “Yes” Vote

I’ve followed Rep. Jeff Jackson (NC) on TikTok for roughly two years, since his 2022 campaign to represent North Carolina’s 14th congressional district. He had been heavily praised by commenters on his videos and by other TikTokers referencing his videos for his usage of the app as a way to show the inner workings of a campaign. I was no exception to this as I often found myself talking to my friends and family about how refreshing and frankly, entertaining Jackson’s videos were. This didn’t stop after Jackson’s landslide 15-point victory on November 8, 2022. The content of Jackson’s videos changed to explain the proceedings of Congress from the point-of-view of a rookie congressman. The style of his videos, however, stayed the same: a calm, grounded, Jackson speaking softly into a camera without harsh lighting, rapid cuts, or over-editing. Jackson also made a point not to reveal his party affiliation (hence my omitting it from the first sentence of this article) or use names of political parties, instead opting to describe them as either the majority or minority. He did not want his account to become a political one, so he posted primarily his personal experience of the Capitol and his insight as to what was happening in Washington as it pertained to voters.

All of the feedback received by Jackson seemingly vanished, however, when on March 13, 2024, PAFACA (i.e. the TikTok ban bill) was passed by the House of Representatives. Jeff Jackson voted “yes” on the bill (now U.S. Public Law 118-50), leaving many of his followers feeling shocked and betrayed. This is where the unwarranted hate comments and disdain for Jackson began. Since his “yes” vote became public, Jackson’s TikTok’s comment sections have been filled with negative remarks ranging from snarky comments to paragraphs pushing TikTok’s character limit.

A limited amount of these commenters’ anger is reasonable. They feel Jackson was being misleading because, before the vote, he posted a video claiming that he did not think that TikTok would ultimately be banned. To be clear, Jackson never claimed to be against the ban, only that he didn’t expect TikTok would ever be blocked from American servers. It’s an issue of misinterpretation that is not Jackson’s fault. The hateful comments did not stop at this miscommunication, however, nor were they ever primarily about that.

The anger towards Jackson quickly redirected into a feeling that he was being hypocritical and in a way, unappreciative by voting against the app that supposedly helped him get elected (though he almost certainly would have won regardless due to the large proportion of voters loyal to his political party in his constituency. The way I see it, had Jackson voted “no” for that reason, he would have been voting on a conflict of interest, a much less honorable thing to do. Jackson made a point not to have his vote be swayed by outside sources, refusing to take money from corporate donors and publicly sharing his personal finances (including sharing that his portfolio includes only index funds that are not managed personally). Despite this, the generally non-politically fluent psychographic of TikTok users use Jackson’s comment sections as a dumping ground for their emotional reactions with sarcastic choruses of “What app is this?” Sidenote: these same comments appear on every single TikTok published by the Biden-Harris campaign’s account.

I think it’s great that a younger generation of Americans are becoming passionate and active about political issues and my intent here is not to tell people to shut up. I simply wish people would form more informed opinions before bombarding one of the few bright spots in American politics with hateful comments.

Representative Jackson, keep doing what you’re doing, and best of luck in your race for Attorney General (fuck gerrymandering).

A frame from Jackson’s apology video posted after the supposed miscommunication