WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill that would restrict the video app TikTok, a historic development in government regulation of social media that is on track to quickly become law.
The legislation, tucked into a $95 billion foreign aid package, gives TikTok’s Beijing-based parent company ByteDance a year to sell the app. If they don’t, it will be banned from US app stores and web hosting companies.
It received overwhelming bipartisan support in both cases chambers of Congress: The Senate passed the package 79-18 and the House passed the TikTok portion of the bill 360-58. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the legislation.
Supporters of the policy say the app poses a national security risk. Lawmakers, citing intelligence briefings from the Biden administration, have raised concerns about the possibility of the Chinese government spying on Americans and spreading propaganda through the app. About 170 million Americans use the platform.
“We are giving people a choice here: to improve this platform and give Americans the opportunity to ensure they are not vilified by our foreign adversaries,” said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., Senate Commerce chairwoman . Committee, Thursday in the Senate.
TikTok says the Chinese government has not requested U.S. users’ data and would not hand it over if it did. They also argue that the legislation violates America’s right to freedom of speech, and that banning the app would hurt small businesses that rely on the app for fame.
So far, there is no public evidence that the app is being used to spy on American citizens, but reports from multiple channels indicate that TikTok’s American arm is struggling to fully separate itself from its Chinese parent company.
Legal and diplomatic battles are brewing
Now that Congress has passed the legislation, expect TikTok to challenge it in court. That’s worked in the past — former President Donald Trump also tried to ban TikTok, which was blocked by a federal judge. More recently, a federal judge in Montana blocked a state ban, saying it “likely violates the First Amendment.”
If ByteDance is forced to comply, selling it would be complicated. TikTok is worth tens of billions of dollars, so only ultra-rich investors can likely afford it. These could be large technology companies such as Meta, Google or Amazon. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also says he is organizing investors to bid on the app.
But the Chinese government would also likely block the sale of the TikTok algorithm, forcing a buyer to rebuild a crucial part of the app.
A Pew Research poll released last December found that 38% of Americans supported banning TikTok, compared to 27% who oppose it and 35% who are unsure about the idea. That’s down from the 50% who said Congress should abolish the app last March.
The survey also found that these attitudes reversed when American adults under the age of 30 were surveyed. Among younger Americans, 41% oppose a ban, compared to 29% who are in favor and 30% who remain unsure.
That has led some Democrats to express concern that the ban’s implementation could hurt their candidates in this fall’s general election. But Democrats, including Biden, argue that the goal is not to ban the app but to get an American company to buy it.
“We just had 80 people from both parties vote for this, there’s a lot of concern about it,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., told US TODAY, shortly after the Senate took a procedural vote on its way to final approval of the constitution. legislation Tuesday.
“We need the programming on TikTok and it’s certainly very creative and successful, and I really believe it should continue,” Stabenow added. “But it must proceed in a way that doesn’t put people’s personal information at risk because it might be in the hands of a foreign adversary.”
Trump also seems to see an opportunity in the legislation: despite previously trying to restrict the app under his own administration, he posted on Truth Social on Monday: ‘To be clear, everyone knows, especially the young, Crooked Joe Biden is responsible for TikTok ban.”
The Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee told CNBC in March that he ultimately decided banning the social media site should be left to Congress. “It’s a difficult decision to make,” he said. “Honestly, there are a lot of people on TikTok who love it.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Congress passes TikTok sell-or-ban bill, but legal battle looms
