TikTok one step closer to US ban after House overwhelmingly approves divestment bill
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House lawmakers voted Wednesday to compel Chinese Communist Party-tied ByteDance to divest from TikTok within six months or face the popular social media app being banned in the US — amid elevated national security concerns and despite full-throated protests from fervent fans.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed 352-65, requires ByteDance to sell off TikTok within six months of the bill becoming law — and bars companies like Google and Apple from offering US-based web hosting or making TikTok available in app stores if no sale takes place.
Additionally, the bill authorizes the Biden administration to prohibit apps linked to four adversary nations: China, Iran, North Korea and Russia. To ban those apps, government agencies must agree on the threat and must make evidence available to Congress.
More than 100 million Americans are estimated to use TikTok regularly, and the company has fought hard against the legislation, calling it a “total ban” in all but name.
“The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression,” TikTok said in a statement last week.
“This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
China does not allow the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or scores of other American social media platforms within its borders.
Despite that, Beijing lashed out at US lawmakers for considering the measure.
“In recent years, though the United States has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to US national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.
President Biden, who signed a law in 2022 prohibiting TikTok on government devices except for certain law enforcement-related reasons, has indicated he will sign the bill if it passes the Senate.
Proponents of the measure have cited national security policies on the books in China which stipulate that “all organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.”
In particular, national security experts are concerned about China gaining access to TikTok user browsing history, biometric identifiers, location and more.
“You wouldn’t allow a radio tower owned by the Chinese to be put up right in the middle of Washington, DC, and then allow it to just put out Chinese propaganda,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) said before the vote.
“That’s exactly what TikTok can be used for because millions of Americans are addicted to it,” he added. “China can absolutely manipulate those algorithms.”
House Select Committee on China Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who pitched the bill, has insisted that it would only require a “forced separation” of ByteDance and TikTok, rather than a ban.
Earlier this year, TikTok CEO Shou Chew committed to a $1.5 billion investment in so-called “Project Texas,” intended to push American data into servers run by Oracle.
“We have not been asked for any data by the Chinese government and we have never provided it,” Chew stressed to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
But lawmakers and national security experts were unconvinced.
“American intelligence cannot rule out that the CCP is responsible for the misinformation campaign on TikTok. But don’t just take my word for it, ask @FBI Director Wray and @ODNIgov Director Haines,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the ranking member of the China committee, posted on X Tuesday.
Former President Donald Trump, whose administration attempted to ban TikTok in 2020, reversed course and opposed the current bill.
“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” Trump told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday.
“There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”
Libertarian-leaning Republicans such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted the policy and warned of it becoming a slippery slope.
“The so-called TikTok ban is a trojan horse. The President will be given the power to ban WEB SITES, not just Apps. The person breaking the new law is deemed to be the U.S. (or offshore) INTERNET HOSTING SERVICE or App Store, not the ‘foreign adversary,’” Massie posted on X Tuesday.
Several prominent progressives voiced similar misgivings.
“I am a NO on the TikTok bill we are about to vote on. I believe the bill does set TikTok up to be banned, there are first amendment [sic] issues I see with taking away a platform that over 170 million American’s [sic] use, and this won’t fix the serious issues we have with data privacy,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) posted on X.
Frost also publicly suggested that the bill forcing ByteDance to divest from TikTok could alienate younger voters and pose complications for Democrats in the 2024 election.
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Ultimately, 50 Democrats opposed the bill along with 15 Republicans. One Democrat voted “present.”
Tech guru Elon Musk, who owns X, also opposed the measure.
“This law is not just about TikTok, it is about censorship and government control! If it were just about TikTok, it would only cite ‘foreign control’ as the issue, but it does not,” he said.
Other groups such as the ACLU also voiced First Amendment concerns about the policy, raising the prospect of it facing a significant challenge in court if Biden signs it into law.
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