The US House of Representatives today Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill on that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance six months to divest its US assets of the short-video app used by about 170 million Americans or face a ban.
The bill was passed 352-65, with bipartisan support.
However, it faces a more uncertain path in the Senate where some favor a different approach to regulating foreign-owned apps that could pose security concerns.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not indicated how he plans to proceed.
TikTok’s fate has become a major issue in Washington. Democratic and Republican lawmakers said their offices had received large volumes of calls from teenaged TikTok users who oppose the legislation, with the volume of complaints at times exceeding the number of calls seeking a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
The measure is the latest in a series of moves in Washington to respond to US national security concerns about China, from connected vehicles to advanced artificial intelligence chips to cranes at US ports.
“This is a critical national security issue. The Senate must take this up and pass it,” No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise said on social media platform X.
Shortly after passage, a bipartisan pair of senators, Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Marco Rubio, issued a joint statement saying they were encouraged by the bipartisan support for the bill and that they “look forward to working together to get this bill passed through the Senate and signed into law.”
The vote comes just over a week since the bill was proposed following one public hearing with little debate, and after action in Congress had stalled for more than a year. Last month, President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign joined TikTok, raising hopes among TikTok officials that legislation was unlikely this year.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee last week voted 50-0 in favor of the bill, setting it up for a vote before the full House.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday on a previously scheduled trip to talk to senators, a source briefed on the matter said.
“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States,” the company said before the vote. “The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression.”
Biden said last week that he would sign the bill.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday the goal was ending Chinese ownership, not banning TikTok.
“Do we want TikTok, as a platform, to be owned by an American company or owned by China? Do we want the data from TikTok – children’s data, adults’ data – to be going, to be staying here in America or going to China?” he said.
It is unclear whether China would approve any sale or if TikTok’s US assets could be divested in six months.
If ByteDance failed to do so, app stores operated by Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.
REUTERS
