In the biggest threat to the short-video app while the Trump administration, the United States House of Representatives being unanimously approved a bill on the Wednesday that provides ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, roughly six months to sell off its U.S. assets or risk having the app banned.
With a bipartisan vote of 352-65, the bill was approved, but it now faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where some senators want to regulate foreign-owned apps differently, raising security issues. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer declared that the bill will be examined by the Senate.
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The action is the most recent in a string of steps taken by Washington in response to American national security worries regarding China, including linked cars, sophisticated AI chips, and cranes stationed at American ports.
“This is a crucial matter for national security. On social media platforms X, Republican Steve Scalise, the second-ranking member of the House, stated that the Senate needs to consider and approve this measure regarding TikTok. Karine Jean-Pierre, the press secretary for the White House, later stated that the team headed by Biden also desired “the Senate take quick action.”
With 170 million users worldwide, TikTok has become a huge issue in Washington, D.C., where politicians have complained that TikTok users opposing legislation have been flooding their offices with calls.
In a video released following the vote, TikTok the chief executive officer Shou Zi Chew—who, according to a source informed on the subject, will be in Washington this week—stated that if the legislation is signed into law, it “will lead to an end to restrictions on TikTok in the USA… and will force billions of euros out of the spaces of creators as well as small businesses.”
In order to avoid a ban, he continued, the corporation will use its legal rights. Following President Joe Biden’s signature of the bill—which he announced last week—the firm has 165 days to launch a legal challenge.
The bill is getting more and more support in the Washington political atmosphere, which is influenced by the legislators’ desire to avoid seeming lenient towards China in the midst of an election year. However, there are worries about how any restriction would affect younger voters.
On Tuesday, White House national defense advisor Jake Sullivan posed the question, “Do we want China to buy TikTok or do we want an American company to run the platform? Is it our desire for the data from TikTok—both adult and child data—to remain in America or to be transferred to China?
The Chinese Foreign Office has expressed disapproval of the bill, stating that “the United States has never ceased pursuing TikTok despite not having any proof of the platform posing a danger to the country’s security.”
Prominent Democratics Question Bill
Numerous well-known Democrats in the House opposed the plan, including Ruben Gallego, the candidate for Arizona’s Senate, House Democratic Whip Kathleen Clark, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the leaders of the Judiciary, the Ways and Means, Transportation, and Intelligence committees.
“There are serious antitrust and privacy questions here, and any national security concerns should be laid out to the public prior to a vote,” Ocasio-Cortez stated.
The head of the Senate Commerce Committee, Maria Cantwell, stated that she is exploring a separate measure and wanted regulations “that might stand up in court,” but she is unsure of her next course of action. Cantwell will be crucial to the Senate’s decision-making process.
After a single, sparsely debated public hearing and more than a year of inaction in Congress, the bill was finally introduced and put to a vote somewhat over a week ago. When Biden’s reelection campaign joined TikTok last month, corporate insiders began to believe that this year’s legislation would not likely pass.
Before the vote, a number of dozens TikTok users staged a protest outside the Capitol. According to a TikTok representative, the corporation covered the cost of their lodging and transportation to Washington.
Among the group was 23-year-old Mona Swain, who claimed to have signed up for TikTok during her first year of college studying musical theatre in 2019. She revealed that, as a full-time creator of content, the money she made from the app was going towards her brother and sister’s college education as well as her mother’s mortgage.
The bill’s most frightening aspect, according to Swain, is that it will likely result in many people losing their jobs.
Uncertainty Over Sale
China’s approval for a sale or the possibility of TikTok selling its US assets in six months are unknown.
If ByteDance is unable to accomplish this, Apple’s (AAPL.O) and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) app stores open new tabs. TikTok and web hosting services could not be lawfully offered by Google and other companies to ByteDance-controlled applications.
Chinese-owned WeChat and TikTok were targeted for ban by then-President Donald Trump in 2020, but the courts stopped him. He had voiced reservations about a ban in recent days, but almost all House Republicans dismissed them.
Uncertainty surrounds whether prominent Chinese-owned applications like WeChat or Tencent’s (0700.HK) opens new tab could be prohibited by the law.
In addition to TikTok’s anticipated legal action, the ACLU of America along with other advocacy groups contend that the bill violates the First Amendment’s protections against free speech among other things.
A Montana state restriction on using TikTok was overturned by a U.S. judge in November following a lawsuit from the corporation.
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