Despite an increasingly divisive political culture across the country, American legislators from both sides of the aisle have found a common enemy that they both can rally around, albeit for different reasons: Big Tech. 

The increasing number of Americans using social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram poses a threat not only to the mental health and personal privacy of their users, these lawmakers say, but even the nation’s national security in some cases. 

In Congress and state legislatures all across the country, lawmakers are angling to scale back the influence of Silicon Valley, comparing modern social media in some cases to cigarettes in both their addictiveness and impact on peoples’ long-term health. 

In Texas, Republican Representative Jared Patterson, who represents the Dallas suburbs, introduced a bill that would ban the use of social media by anyone under the age of 18. As written, the bill would oblige social media platforms to request and verify users’ photo identification before allowing them to create an account on platforms like Facebook and Instagram. 

In a statement, Mr. Patterson said the legislation’s aim is to “protect children from the harmful mental health effects of social media.” He compared social media to addictive substances of the past, saying “social media is the pre-1964 cigarette.”

In recent years, studies have shown social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have had detrimental effects on the mental health of minors, especially young girls. Between 2004 and 2018, Texas reported a nearly 50 percent increase in suspected suicide emergency calls for those aged 13 to 19. 

Oren Cass, a conservative public policy expert and former advisor to Senator Romney, noted that the number of hospital visits for self-harm doubled among girls under the age of 14 between 2010 and 2014. 

“We are tremendously grateful for Rep. Jared Patterson’s leadership on keeping this precious population safe, and TPPF is fully supportive of prohibiting social media access to minors,” said the CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Greg Sindelar. 

Democrats have also decried Silicon Valley’s impact on children. In his 2022 State of the Union address, President Biden raised concerns similar to Mr. Patterson’s. “We must hold social media platforms accountable for the national experiment they’re conducting on our children for profit,” Mr. Biden said. 

The conservative policy think-tank American Compass, which was founded by Mr. Cass, has also focused on the health and wellbeing of children online. 

“The Digital Revolution has created new ways to exploit children for profit, and Big Tech has seized the opportunity enthusiastically,” said Mr. Cass, who noted that some social media executives have admitted as much. 

In Congress, the focus on Silicon Valley goes beyond mental health concerns and into the realm of national security. A bipartisan group unveiled legislation on Tuesday that would ban social platforms with ties to “adversarial” nations, such as the People’s Republic of China. The bill is widely viewed as an attempt to shut down TikTok. 

The legislation would compel the President to declare a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act in relation to any such company, allowing the office-holder to seize property and assets. 

Brandon Pugh, Resident Senior Fellow at the R Street Institute, said Senator Rubio’s bill has a greater likelihood of being adopted than the Texas legislation aimed at banning minors from using social platforms. 

“[Senator Rubio] is taking a more holistic approach to these issues,” Mr. Pugh told the Sun. “From what I’ve seen, the Texas legislation does not have much traction.”

Senator Rubio and two members of the House — one Democrat and one Republican — said that the goal of the bill is to protect children’s privacy and combat the influence of the People’s Republic of China. “This isn’t about creative videos – this is about an app that is collecting data on tens of millions of American children,” they said in a summary of the legislation. 

State governments have also taken aim at TikTok. Seven states, ranging from Maryland to Texas, have banned the use of the video platform from state-owned cell phones, laptops, and tablets. Indiana went so far as the sue the company this week, claiming it is intentionally misleading its predominately teenage users.

“There may be no greater threat to our personal [cybersecurity] safety” than TikTok, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan said in a statement announcing his state’s ban. 

Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, recently signed an executive order doing the same. “We must protect Utahns and make sure that the people of Utah can trust the state’s security systems,” Mr. Cox said. 

While all of the legislative actions have different stated goals, they have the same goal — curbing the power of Silicon Valley over Americans’ daily lives. It has become a favorite new activity, regardless of party. 

“There is a real hunger for change, and you could see this advance in the 118th Congress,” Mr. Pugh said.