A bill that would ban TikTok unless its Chinese parent company ByteDance sells it passed out of committee unanimously this afternoon by a bipartisan 50-0 vote. The next step for the bill will be a vote in front of the full House.
The bill, dubbed the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would bar app stores and web hosting services in the U.S. from hosting apps run by ByteDance, including TikTok, unless the app sever ties with the company.
TikTok has long been a target of bipartisan efforts to ban the company based on allegations that the app is both a “highly addictive and destructive” threat to young people, as well as a vector for national security violations. In 2023, those efforts had the support of Democrats and Republicans, who have claimed that the app is a big vacuum that siphons up U.S. users’ data and sends it to China, as well as a brainwashing tool susceptible to turning young people against Israel.
In February last year, the White House released an executive order banning the app from federal government devices and advocated for a bill boosted by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the Senate Intelligence Committee’s chair, which would give Biden the tools to ban the app outright or force a sale.
That bill floundered on Republican opposition to granting Biden those powers though, but the new bill, introduced in the House by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.), the head of the House’s Select Committee on China on Tuesday would grant some similar powers, including the ability for the president to designate certain social media apps “subject to the control of a foreign adversary” with a national security threat label.
Last November, Gallagher argued that TikTok, under the alleged influence and direction of the Chinese government, was the reason that so many young people were supporting Palestine after the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas and the subsequent devastating assault by Israel on Gaza.
“How did we reach a point where a majority of young Americans hold such a morally bankrupt view of the world?” Gallagher asked then. “Where many young Americans were rooting for terrorists who had kidnapped American citizens—and against a key American ally? Where were they getting the raw news to inform this upside-down worldview? The short answer is … TikTok.”
“So long as it is owned by ByteDance and thus required to collaborate with the CCP, TikTok poses critical threats to our national security,” said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) in a statement introducing the bill on Tuesday. “Whether it’s Russia or the CCP, this bill ensures the President has the tools he needs to press dangerous apps to divest and defend Americans’ security and privacy against our adversaries.”
Ahead of the vote today, TikTok encouraged supporters to call their House representatives and express their opposition to it.
“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it,” a TikTok spokesperson told Reuters ahead of the vote. “This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform.”
