A bipartisan bill that would force Chinese government-aligned ByteDance to sell TikTok passed a House committee vote unanimously on Thursday. Lawmakers resisted the app’s full-scale pressure campaign, and disgruntled users tried to repeal the bill.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill to protect Americans from foreign enemy regulatory applications by a 50-0 vote during markup session.
The bill would prevent companies like Apple and Google from offering TikTok in the U.S. on their own app stores or providing social platforms with web hosting services unless ByteDance sells within 180 days. It is prohibited.
The measure also gives the executive branch the authority to ban other apps owned by foreign adversaries if the platform is deemed to pose a threat to national security, but requires agency agreement and That information must be presented to Congress and the American people.
The bill defines only China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea as foreign adversaries, consistent with existing federal law.
More than 100 million Americans use TikTok, many under the age of 30, and reports that the Chinese government is stealing app users’ data have raised concerns among lawmakers in Washington. There is.
“Earlier today, we heard from members of the intelligence community about the dangers posed by applications like TikTok that are controlled by foreign adversaries and determined to misuse and weaponize Americans’ data. ,” panel chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rogers (R-Wash.) said before the hearing.
“We also witnessed firsthand in real time how the Chinese Communist Party weaponizes platforms like TikTok to manipulate the American people,” she added. “This morning, ahead of our hearing, TikTok used its influence and power to compel users to contact their representatives if they wish to continue using TikTok.
“These are just some of the ways the Chinese Communist Party is weaponizing the applications it controls and manipulating tens of millions of people to advance its objectives.”
TikTok called the bill a “total ban” in a statement Tuesday, saying it “tramples on the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprives 5 million small businesses of growth and job creation.” “It takes away the platforms that depend on them.”
The app then pressured U.S. users to lobby opposing members of Congress, with one unidentified caller threatening to commit suicide if passed. According to Politico.
The bill’s co-sponsors, Chairman Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, Rep. The government denied the allegations, saying it did not authorize the measures. It did not regulate users or American speech.
After the bill was passed, both men called for a swift vote on the bill by the entire House. 12 page invoice.
“TikTok poses a significant threat to U.S. national security as long as it remains owned by the Chinese Communist Party-controlled ByteDance,” Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi said in a joint statement.
Former President Donald Trump’s Commerce Department tried to launch TikTok from U.S. app stores in September 2020, but President Biden reversed the move by signing an executive order in his first year in office.
Still, the FBI and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) warned the Biden administration that China could obtain Americans’ browsing history, location, and other biometric information through the app.
The House bill would further undermine efforts by social media platforms to obtain that information by forcing apps to hand over user data upon request.
During a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in January, TikTok’s CEO Hsu Chu said he was working on “Project Texas,” which would migrate U.S. users’ data to servers maintained by domestic tech giant Oracle. It extended an olive branch by pledging to invest $1.5 billion in the initiative. .
But Gallagher and other lawmakers remain unconvinced that the app is serious about protecting Americans.
In a preliminary hearing, a Wisconsin Republican lawmaker said in a preliminary hearing that China and its military, the People’s Liberation Army, have already made significant progress in weaponizing the “rules of the road” for TikTok and other apps owned by hostile governments. He asked Congress to establish the following. personal data.
“We have already seen how China uses advanced biotechnology for forced DNA collection, genetic surveillance, and genetic enhancement of PLA soldiers. This is a trending topic in the PLA military community.” he said at the time.
Biden signed legislation in 2022 banning the use of TikTok on government devices, which applies to about 4 million federal employees, and later a Senate bill that mirrors the Commerce Department’s ban on TikTok during the Trump administration. indicated support for.
The bill never made it out of a Senate committee, but the president later joined the app to appeal to younger voters during his 2024 re-election campaign, and his opening post during the Super Bowl received 5 million views. Obtained number of views.
Robert O’Brien, former national security adviser to President Trump, told the Energy and Commerce Committee that the Chinese Communist Party “controls the platforms that young Americans overwhelmingly rely on for news.” He testified that he intended to do so.
“Doing so would be like allowing the Soviet Union to take control of some of America’s major newspapers and television stations during the Cold War,” O’Brien said. “Congress must pass this bill and finish the job the Trump administration started in 2020: either force a sale of TikTok and remove it from the control of the Chinese Communist Party, or ban it from operating in the United States. ”
