Potential TikTok Ban Passes U.S. House of Reps with Strong Bipartisan Support

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted in favor of a bill that would ban TikTok from all devices in the United States unless the app’s Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance divests from the platform.

A substantial number of both Democrats and Republicans voted in favor of the measure Wednesday, leading to the bill passing by a margin of 352 to 65.

A majority of Democratic representatives, 155 — including Rep. Jared Golden (D) and Rep. Chellie Pingree (D) of Maine — and 197 Republicans voted in support of banning the app unless it is removed from Chinese ownership.

TikTok has been subject to heightened scrutiny in recent months over data privacy concerns, as Chinese law requires the country’s businesses to share information with the government’s ruling Communist Party upon request.

Despite this law, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has denied ever having shared U.S. users’ data with the Chinese government, stating before Congress that the company has begun taking steps to ensure that American data continues to remain shielded from Chinese officials, citing what has become known as “Project Texas.”

The $1.5 billion plan primarily entails transferring the data of U.S. TikTok users to the cloud infrastructure of Oracle — a cloud company based in Austin, Texas — as well as restructuring their U.S. operations to provide a greater level of transparency and oversight in an effort to increase American confidence in the platform’s security.

Regardless of this, both the federal government and a number of states have taken action to ban the download or use of TikTok on government-owned devices due to security concerns.

As of January 2023, 33 states — including Maine — had put in place some form of a ban on TikTok for government-issued devices.

Known as HR 7521 — or the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — the bill passed Wednesday by the House is said to address “the threat posed by foreign adversary controlled applications, such as TikTok…and any other application or service developed or provided by ByteDance.”

Click Here for More Information on HR 7521

This past Thursday, TikTok sent users a push notification reading “Take action: Speak up against a TikTok shutdown,” and provided them with a direct link to call their Congressional representative. A TikTok spokesperson reportedly issued a statement indicating that this message was only sent to users over the age of 18.

A new message being shown to users now warns that “your freedom to create is at risk,” again directing them to call their elected representatives and urge them to oppose HR 7521.

Following TikTok’s dispersal of these messages, many elected officials have reported their phone lines being inundated with calls from “minor children” that have “no idea what was going on.”

“Most of these push notifications went to minor children, and these minor children were flooding our offices with phone calls,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) told CBS News. “Basically they pick up the phone, call the office and say, ‘What is a congressman? What is Congress?’ They had no idea what was going on.”

“This is exactly the reason why so many of our colleagues voted for the bill. They don’t want a foreign adversary controlling social media apps using geolocation to target minor children to call members of Congress or interfere in our elections. This is exactly the reason why this particular legislation is necessary now,” Rep. Krishnamoorthi said.

Before being considered on the floor of the House, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously in support of HR 7521.

Although this law is frequently referred to as a ban on TikTok, lawmakers have pushed back on this interpretation.

“Every national security official in the Biden administration has warned about the national security threat posed by TikTok under its current ownership structure,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) to CBS News. “That’s what we’re trying to get at. Not a ban, but a separation.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has suggested that this legislation is an attempt “to trade our First Amendment rights for cheap political points during an election year.”

“Just because the bill sponsors claim that banning TikTok isn’t about suppressing speech, there’s no denying that it would do just that. We strongly urge legislators to vote no on this unconstitutional bill,” the ACLU said in a statement last week.

Earlier this year, President Joe Biden’s (D) reelection campaign joined TikTok in spite of the oft-cited security concerns surrounding the platform.

[RELATED: Biden Campaign Joins TikTok Despite Persistent Security Concerns]

President Biden had previously utilized TikTok influencers in an effort to connect with younger audiences on the platform, but until then, had refrained from setting up an account for himself or his campaign.

Former President Donald Trump has recently spoken out in opposition to HR 7521 despite having championed a similar move while in office, arguing that a ban on the platform would give Facebook and other Meta platforms a boost.

“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” former President Trump wrote last week on Truth Social. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!

In a March 6 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre indicated that — despite the presidential campaign’s use of the platform — the Administration is supportive of the legislation.

“The administration has worked with members of Congress from both parties to pursue a durable legislative solution that would address the threat posed by certain technology services operating in the United States that put at risk Americans’ personal information and broader national security,” Jean-Pierre said.

“And so, what we see is this bill is important,” said Jean-Pierre. “We welcome the step on ongoing efforts to deal with that, to address that. And we appreciate the bipartisan work. I think that’s important that this was done in a bipartisan way. And so, we look forward to working with Congress.”

Jean-Pierre went on to characterize the bill not as a ban on the app, but rather as a means of taking TikTok out of the hands of the Chinese.

“I would have to say, you know, we don’t see this as banning these apps — that’s not what this is — but by ensuring that their ownership isn’t in the hands of those who may do us ar- — harm,” Jean-Pierre said. “This is about our national security, obviously, and this is what we’re focused on here.”

Click Here to Read the Full White House Transcript of the March 6 Press Briefing

Before this law targeting TikTok and the Chinese-owned ByteDance could go into effect, it must both be approved by the Senate and signed into law by Biden.