A Ban on TikTok is back on the table after the House approved a new bill Saturday addressing the issues that stalled it in the Senate.
The bill would allow the Biden administration to ban TikTok nationwide if it does not divest from its China-based owner, Bytedance, within a year. It’s different from a similar bill was passed in the House last month and gives TikTok six more months to find a U.S. buyer. The previous bill stalled in the Senate after Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell raised several issues, including the short divestiture deadline.
It was adopted easily, by 360 votes to 58.
“This app is a spy balloon on Americans’ phones,” Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, said when introducing the bill in the House on Saturday. “It’s a modern-day Trojan horse… used to monitor and exploit America’s personal information.”
TikTok’s response received bipartisan support. “National security experts are sounding the alarm, warning that our foreign adversaries are using every tool at their disposal, including apps like TikTok, to amass tons of sensitive data on all Americans,” the representative said. Frank Pallone, a Democrat from New Jersey. “This bill takes decisive action to mitigate our adversaries’ ability to collect Americans’ data and use it against us.”
Digital freedoms groups have opposed banning TikTok due to First Amendment concerns and because they believe getting rid of TikTok does not solve the underlying problem of pervasive data collection. “The only solution to this pervasive ecosystem is to ban the collection of our data in the first place,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group, wrote in a statement. job last month. “Ultimately, foreign adversaries will still be able to obtain our data from social media companies unless those companies are prohibited from collecting it, storing it, and selling it, period.”
Even the owner of X, Elon Musk, spoke out against the ban. “In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the United States, even if such a ban could benefit the X platform,” he said. job Friday on X. “This would be contrary to freedom of expression. This is not what America stands for.
Either way, a divestment or ban now seems almost certain. This new measure had been added to a multibillion-dollar foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. After Iran’s retaliation against Israel last week, that aid was fast-tracked, which would make it harder for the Senate to avoid passage.
Cantwell endorsed this latest package, saying in a statement released Wednesday: “I am very pleased that President Johnson and House leaders have incorporated my recommendation to extend the Byte Dance divestment period from six months to one year. As I said, it is necessary to extend the conveyancing period to ensure that a new buyer has sufficient time to complete a transaction. I support this updated legislation.
For several years, Congress has tried, unsuccessfully, to force a sale of TikTok. Republicans and Democrats fear enforcement could be a problem a risk to American national security, providing the Chinese government with troves of data on American users. But Congress has provided little evidence to support these claims, and TikTok and its supporters argue that banning the app would violate the right to freedom of expression.
