The House on Wednesday passed a bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. The legislation requires TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell it within 180 days or risk the app being banned from app stores and web hosting services in the U.S.
Last week, the bill was unanimously approved by a House committee. TikTok has around 170 million users monthly in the U.S. alone.
The concern from lawmakers stems from ByteDance's connection with the Chinese government, which could reportedly demand access to TikTok users' data in the U.S.
But others — like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Robert Garcia, who spoke during the hearing — oppose the ban because they don't feel as though TikTok is an immediate security threat and that a ban could negatively impact the economy as well as take away a major platform for social connection.
Democrat Rep. Jim Hines, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, voted against the bill. In a statement, he said, "I have more insight than most into the online threats posed by our adversaries. But one of the key differences between us and those adversaries is the fact that they shut down newspapers, broadcast stations and social media platforms."
Supporters of the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” like Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, have emphasized that it’s not about banning TikTok but about separating the app from ByteDance.
"This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it," a TikTok spokesperson told Yahoo News. "This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs."
There was a 40-minute debate on Wednesday, with each party getting roughly half of that time for floor remarks.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican from Washington state, who was in charge of the committee that advanced the bill after its introduction last week, kicked off the debate and pushed for the bill to be passed. She referenced TikTok's in-app pop-up messages urging users to contact their representatives last week as evidence of the app's influence over Americans.
What happens next
It's on to the Senate, where experts say its fate is still being determined.
President Biden said that if Congress passes the bill, he will sign it.He joined TikTok in February.
In March 2023, senators unveiled a bipartisan bill to encourage Biden to ban TikTok and other foreign-linked producers of electronics or software that the Commerce Department could deem a national security risk.
Will the bill pass in the Senate?
It's unclear where the Senate stands on the TikTok ban. Republican Sen. Rand Paul, of Kentucky, has been pledging in interviews that he feels a TikTok ban would violate the Constitution. Paul's opposition blocked the other bid to ban TikTok in 2023.
Sen. Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been open about his long-standing support for banning any apps that are deemed to be under the influence of China or Russia.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also told outlets he will have to consult with committee chairs to determine the bill's path. As of Wednesday, it's not clear if he has committed to bringing the ban up for a vote in the Senate. However, in February, he did say that he supported consideration of a national TikTok ban.
Would it be easy for ByteDance to sell TikTok?
TikTok carries an enormous price tag for its hundreds of millions of U.S.-based users. It’s also unclear whether, if forced to sell, ByteDance would sell the app’s global presence or just the U.S.-based operation.
Tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Meta might be able to afford to buy TikTok (Microsoft nearly did in 2020), but it goes against the Biden administration's attempts to block the companies from becoming even bigger.
China might also not let the sale even happen. In 2020, when there were first talks of selling TikTok, China placed export restrictions on technology.
Trump flip-flops on a ban
Former President Donald Trump reversed his opinion and now opposes a ban on TikTok — conflicting with the overarching Republican consensus on Capitol Hill. President Joe Biden, on the other hand, has endorsed the bill.
On CNBC earlier this week, Trump said that he agreed TikTok is a national security threat but would not support banning the app because it could help Facebook, which Trump referred to as "the enemy of the people."
During the House vote, Rep. Thomas Massie agreed with Trump’s sentiment about Facebook.
“It could also be named the Facebook Protection and Enhancement Act, because it’s not the American people who are going to benefit most from this. It will be Facebook,” Massie said.“Their stock is going to go up.”
China’s response
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin warned that a potential TikTok ban would "come back to the bite the United States," The Hill reported on Wednesday.
“Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” Wenbin said. “This kind of bullying behavior that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order.”
