House overwhelmingly voted for bill that could ban TikTok in US
TikTok is now one step closer to facing US app store removal after a successful US House vote Wednesday.
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The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that could remove TikTok from US app stores.
The vote succeeded 352-65, with the majority of nos coming from Democrats on Wednesday.
If the bill becomes law it will require the Chinese firm Bytedance to divest from TikTok and other applications that it owns within 180 days. If ByteDance does not divest, TikTok would be removed from US app stores.
Legislators have argued that Bytedance could give the Chinese government access to TikTok user’s data, pointing to national security laws that require companies to help with intelligence gathering.
The bill will now require a successful US Senate vote and subsequent Presidential signature to become law.
Despite its overwhelming success, the bill also received bipartisan opposition.
Representative Jim Himes, a Democrat and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he was not in favour of the potential ban that could result from the bill. Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar told The Independent she was not convinced to vote yes even after a national security briefing.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also voted no, telling The Independent it could have unintended consequences for social media use.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson comments on TikTok legislation
“Communist China is America’s largest geopolitical foe and is using technology to actively undermine America’s economy and security,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement Wednesday morning. “Apps like TikTok allow the Chinese Communist Party to push harmful content to our youth and engage in malign activities, such as harvesting the location, purchasing habits, contacts, and sensitive data of Americans.”
“Today’s bipartisan vote demonstrates Congress’ opposition to Communist China’s attempts to spy on and manipulate Americans, and signals our resolve to deter our enemies,” he continued. “I urge the Senate to pass this bill and send it to the President so he can sign it into law.”
Co-author says bill won’t ban TikTok and force users onto Meta platforms as Donald Trump claimed
Mike Gallagher, Chair of the House Select Committee on Competition with the Chinese Communist Party, spoke to The Independent about Donald Trump’s opposition to the bill.
Mr Trump claimed that a potential removal of TikTok from US app stores will allow Meta platforms — like Facebook and Instagram — to become more successful.
“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better,” the former president said, referring to his baseless conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was rigged.
Mr Gallagher told The Independent that Mr Trump’s portrayal of the bill does not accurately describe its purpose.
“The goal of the bill is not to shut down TikTok and force its users onto Facebook, that would be a bad outcome, so in that sense, I agree with what Trump said,” Mr Gallagher told The Independent. “But our bill allows for a divestiture. Again, a lot of this process started with the former president in 2020, trying to tackle the national security threat posed by finances and ownership of TikTok.”
Several Democrats opposed bill
Some 50 Democrats voted against the bill that could result in TikTok being removed from US app stores.
Representative Ilhan Omar told The Independent she was not convinced after a national security briefing.
“They were not able to provide any concrete evidence that this was necessary for us to protect our national security outside of the misinformation that we’ve seen on Facebook, on Instagram on YouTube shorts on Twitter, so just singling out this particular company seemed like it was not in line with protecting our national security,” she said.
Representative Jim Himes, a Democrat and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, also voted against the bill.
“I have more insight than most into the online threats posed by our adversaries,” Mr Himes said in a statement. “But one of the key differences between us and those adversaries is the fact they shut down newspapers, broadcast stations, and social media platforms. We do not.”
Chairwoman of committee that advanced bill reaffirms need for ByteDance divestment
Republican Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce which voted to advance the bill to the House, told The Independent the Senate must now act to pass the bill.
“The Senate needs to act soon — I recommend that TikTok break up with the Chinese Communist Party,” she told The Independent.
She also noted that Donald Trump’s opposition to the bill — which he said would drive more users to Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram — is a separate issue.
“We share the concerns that President Trump has with Facebook and Meta but that’s a separate issue from this bill,” Ms Rodgers said.
Chair of Senate Ethics Committee speaks on TikTok bill
Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat and Chair of the Senate Ethics Committee, told The Independent he wants to find “a path forward where TikTok is still widely available” while still supporting ByteDance divestment.
“My strong impression is that the Chinese Communist Party uses its control over Chinese-owned companies to hoover up personally identifying data on those who use services run by Chinese companies,” Mr Coons said. “TikTok, in my view, is one of those companies and I think there is a real incredible threat to the data security of Americans as a result. On the other hand, I recognize that 10s of millions of Americans enjoy TikTok every day.”
“If it is possible for [TikTok] to be sold from Chinese control to non-Chinese control, I think it's great,” he continued.
The House has now passed a bill that could ban TikTok. What happens next?
TikTok ban: What happens now after House passed bill?
The legislation that could ban TikTok from US app stores still has more hurdles to pass before it becomes law
Senior Counsel at ACLU speaks out against bill
Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, called the bill that could result in a TikTok ban “blatant censorship.”
“Make no mistake: the House’s TikTok bill is a ban, and it’s blatant censorship,” Ms Leventoff said. “Today, the House of Representatives voted to violate the First Amendment rights of more than half of the country. The Senate must reject this unconstitutional and reckless bill.”
The bill will now move to the US Senate, though whether it will succeed is still unclear given the chamber’s Democratic majority.
Representative from Massachusetts calls for more comprehensive legislation on social media
Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, called Wednesday’s House bill “the wrong approach.”
“Instead of targeting a single company in a rushed and restricted process, Congress should pass comprehensive data privacy legislation that creates standards and regulations around data harvesting across all social media companies, like many other nations have done,” Ms Pressley said in a statement. “I also have serious concerns about the First Amendment implications of a ban on TikTok, which millions of Americans rely on to consume news, make a living, and build community with one another.”
Former Speaker of the House supports bill over concerns of censorship by Chinese government
Representative Nancy Pelosi, former Speaker of the House, said she supports the bill due to the censorship of minority communities by the Chinese government.
“Repressed communities in China – from the Uyghurs to Tibetans to the people of Hong Kong, and others – are telling us that their stories of their suffering are being blocked or misrepresented on TikTok,” Ms Pelosi said in a statement. “At the same time, the CCP is spreading propaganda to cover up its heinous abuses. We cannot allow Beijing to bury the truth of its abysmal record on human rights.”
The California Congresswoman has long focused on China as part of her legislative agenda. Ms Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022, becoming the first Speaker since Newt Gingrich in 1997.
She also visited Tiananmen Square two years after the 1989 massacre, holding a banner that read, “To those who died for democracy in China.”
Potential TikTok ban explained
Want to learn more about how the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applicants Act could result in US app stores removing TikTok?
The Independent’s Alex Woodward has the answers:
Could the US ban TikTok?
Biden supports a bill to force TikTok to break from ByteDance, but Trump – now backed by a GOP megadonor with billions at stake with the app – is sceptical
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