Former Florida Congresswoman Pam Keith has blamed Israel lobby group Aipac (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) for the large Democrat vote to ban Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok.

The House on Wednesday passed legislation that could ban the platform in the US if its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, refuses to divest.

The vote was 352 in favour and 65 opposed, with 197 Republicans and 155 Democrats voting to approve it. Fifteen Republicans and 50 Democrats voted against the bill.

Reacting to the news of the vote, Pam Keith, ex-representative of Florida’s heavily Jewish 18th Congressional District, wrote on Twitter / X: “Wow! I am f*****g SHOCKED that Dems are voting to ban Tik Tok. This is AIPAC at work.”

The House fast-tracked the legislation to ban TikTok, known as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, by bringing it up under a procedure that required the support of two-thirds of members for passage.

Keith’s comments come as a coalition of “progressive” organisations in the US have announced a fundraising, lobbying and organising push called ‘Reject Aipac’ to counter the Israel lobby group.