by WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed legislation Saturday that would ban TikTok in the United States unless the owner of the popular China-based social media platform sells its promise within a year, but don’t expect the app to go away out anytime soon. .
The decision by House Republicans to include TikTok as part of a larger foreign aid package, a priority for President Joe Biden with broad congressional support for Ukraine and Israel, quickly ended the ban after an earlier version stalled in the Senate. A stand-alone bill with a six-month shorter sales deadline passed the House in March in a resounding bipartisan vote as both Democrats and Republicans raised national security concerns about the app’s owner, the tech firm Chinese ByteDance Ltd.
The modified measure, which passed by a vote of 360-58, now goes to the Senate after negotiations that increased the timeline for the sale of the company to nine months, with a possible additional three months if a sale is underway.
Legal challenges could extend that timeline even further. The company has indicated that it would likely go to court to try to block the lawsuit if it succeeds, arguing that it would take away the First Amendment rights of the app’s millions of users.
TikTok lobbied hard against the legislation, pushing the app’s 170 million US users — many of them young — to call Congress and voice opposition. But the pushback angered lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where there is widespread concern about China’s threats to the US and where few members use the platform themselves.
“We will not stop fighting and praising for you,” said TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew in a video posted on the platform last month and directed towards the app’s users. “We will continue to do everything we can, including exercising our legal rights, to protect this great platform we’ve built with you.”
The bill’s quick path through Congress is remarkable because it targets one company and because Congress has taken a hands-off approach to technology regulation for decades. Lawmakers have failed to act despite efforts to protect children online, protect user privacy and make companies more liable for content posted on their platforms, among other measures. But the TikTok ban reflects widespread concerns among lawyers about China.
Members of both parties, along with intelligence officials, are concerned that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over American user data or instruct the company to suppress or boost TikTok content favorable to its interests. . TikTok has denied claims that it could be used as a tool of the Chinese government and said it has not shared US user data with Chinese authorities.
The US government has not publicly provided evidence showing that TikTok shared US user data with the Chinese government or tinkered with the company’s popularity algorithm, which affects what Americans see.
The company has good reason to think a legal challenge could be successful, having seen some success in previous legal battles over its US operations. In November, a federal judge blocked a Montana law that would have banned the use of TikTok statewide after the company and five content creators who use the platform sued.
In 2020, federal courts blocked an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump to ban TikTok after the company sued on the grounds that the order violated free speech and due process rights. His administration scrapped a deal that would have given US corporations Oracle and Walmart a major stake in TikTok. The sale did not go ahead for a number of reasons; one of them was China, which imposed stricter export controls on its technology suppliers.
Dozens of states and the federal government have implemented TikTok bans on government devices. The Texas ban was challenged last year by the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which argued in a lawsuit that the policy impeded academic freedom because it extended to public universities. In December, a federal judge ruled in favor of the state.
Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union have supported the app. “Congress cannot take away the rights of more than 170 million Americans from TikTok to express themselves, engage in political advocacy, and access information from around the world,” said Jenna Leventoff, a lawyer for the group.
Since mid-March, TikTok has spent $5 million on TV ads opposing the legislation, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking firm. The ads included a range of content creators, including a nun, praising the platform’s positive impacts on their lives and arguing that a ban would infringe on the First Amendment. The company has also encouraged its users to contact Congress, and several legislators have received calls to lawmakers.
“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian aid to once again jam through a prohibition bill that would violate the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, destroy 7 million businesses, and set the stage for helps him. $24 billion to the US economy, annually,” said Alex Haurek, a spokesperson for the company.
California Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat, voted against the legislation. He said he thinks there may be less restrictive ways to go after the company that wouldn’t result in an outright ban or free speech.
“I think it won’t be well received,” Khanna said. “It’s a sign that the Beltway is out of touch with where the voters are.”
Nadya Okamoto, a content creator with about 4 million followers on TikTok, said she is in conversations with other creators who are “so angry and concerned” about the bill and how it will affect their lives. The 26-year-old, whose company “August” sells menstrual products and is known for its advocacy of destigmatizing menstrual periods, receives most of its income from TikTok.
“This is going to have real consequences,” she said.
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Hadero reported from New York.
