The House of Representatives passed a bill to ban TikTok by a vote of 352-65. Voting on Wednesday puts the focus in the Senate on what to do with a controversial bill that has President Biden’s support.
One councilor voted present.
The Protecting Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries law will force TikTok’s China-based parent company ByteDance to sell the app within about five months of its entry into force, or face US charges. They will be banned from app stores and web hosting services.
The bill comes less than a week after it was first introduced by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the top members of the House Select Committee. It was quickly passed by the House of Representatives with an internal vote scheduled for 2019. About the Chinese Communist Party.
House Republicans have invoked special rules for voting that require passage by a two-thirds majority, rather than the simple majority required for most House bills, to speed up the process.
Republicans also rushed to pass the bill in the face of opposition from former President Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok as president before changing his stance.
Supporters of the bill say it is aimed at curbing the national security provided by ByteDance, which they say could share sensitive data from U.S. users with the Chinese government. are doing.
TikTok strongly opposed the bill, pushing back against accusations that it posed a national security risk.
A TikTok spokesperson accused the House of Representatives of “rushing” the bill.
“This process took place in secret, and the bill stalled for one reason: prohibition. We look forward to recognizing the impact on the 170 million Americans who use our services,” the spokesperson said.
The ban passed with bipartisan support, but also vocal opposition from both sides of the aisle.
“We are extremely concerned that our data is being collected and misused by both foreign adversaries and domestic companies. But this bill does not solve that problem,” said House Speaker Maxwell Frost. Rep. (D-Fla.) said Tuesday.
He was also among the Democratic lawmakers who expressed concern about how the bill could infringe on users’ free speech rights. The ACLU and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University also raised these concerns about the bill.
Trump, the likely 2024 Republican presidential nominee, was the most powerful right-wing opponent of the bill. His opposition centered on how it would benefit rival social media company Facebook.
Trump’s opposition to a potential ban on TikTok came after meeting with Jeff Yass, a major Republican donor and investor in TikTok. President Trump said Yass did not bring up TikTok during the conversation.
Biden said he would sign the bill if Congress passed it, leaving any further action to the Senate.
It is unclear whether the Senate will advance the bill.
Gallagher said Tuesday ahead of the vote that there was “a lot of interest” from Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Marco Rubio (D-Fla.), the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. State, Democratic Party). for their work.
“They clearly understand the threat posed by the current ownership structure, and I look forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate to move this issue forward,” Gallagher said.
Mr. Rubio and Mr. Warner expressed their support for the House bill in a statement released after the vote, highlighting the House’s strong bipartisan support for the bill.
“We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok, a platform with tremendous power to influence and divide Americans. Its parent company ByteDance remains at the mercy of the Chinese Communist Party. is legally required,” they said.
“We are encouraged by the strong bipartisan vote in the House today and look forward to working together to move this bill through the Senate and signed into law.”
“There are some concerns about the constitutionality of the approach of naming specific companies,” Warner said in a statement last week.
The senator added, “I have great respect for Congressman Gallagher and will consider this bill carefully.”
Even if the law passes, it could still face the same constitutional challenges as other bills that sought to ban TikTok before it.
Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi said the way the bill was drafted avoids issues raised in other bills and highlights the options it would give ByteDance to sell TikTok. But experts said the bill was likely to suffer a similar fate.
Susan Ariel Aaronson, a professor of international studies at George Washington University, said the bill “goes against the rule of law.”
He also said it did not address the root of the problem and that banning one company would likely lead to another popping up in the future without addressing the “real problem”.
Sarah Krebs, director of Cornell University’s Institute for High Technology Policy, said she was not confident the bill would “actually avoid the free speech concerns” raised in previous attempts.
“ByteDance has said they will not sell TikTok, so there is no reason to think they will exercise that option,” she said.
Updated at 10:53am
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