House passes a bill that could lead to a TikTok ban if Chinese owner refuses to sell
By KEVIN FREKING, HALELUYA HADERO and MARY CLARE JALONICK (Related Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Home on Wednesday handed a invoice that may result in a nationwide ban of the favored video app TikTok if its China-based proprietor doesn’t promote its stake, as lawmakers acted on issues that the corporate’s present possession construction is a nationwide safety menace.
The invoice, handed by a vote of 352-65, now goes to the Senate, the place its prospects are unclear.
TikTok, which has greater than 150 million American customers, is a completely owned subsidiary of Chinese language know-how agency ByteDance Ltd.
The lawmakers contend that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese language authorities, which may demand entry to the information of TikTok’s customers within the U.S. any time it needs. The fear stems from a set of Chinese language nationwide safety legal guidelines that compel organizations to help with intelligence gathering.
“We’ve got given TikTok a transparent selection,” stated Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. “Separate out of your father or mother firm ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP (the Chinese language Communist Occasion), and stay operational in the US, or facet with the CCP and face the implications. The selection is TikTok’s.”
Home passage of the invoice is simply step one. The Senate would additionally must move the measure for it to turn out to be regulation, and lawmakers in that chamber indicated it might endure a radical evaluation. Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., stated he’ll need to seek the advice of with related committee chairs to find out the invoice’s path.
President Joe Biden has stated if Congress passes the measure, he’ll signal it.
The Home vote is the newest instance of elevated tensions between China and the U.S. By concentrating on TikTok, lawmakers are tackling what they see as a grave menace to America’s nationwide safety — but additionally singling out a platform fashionable with thousands and thousands of individuals, a lot of whom skew youthful, simply months earlier than an election.
A TikTok spokesperson, Alex Haurek, stated in a press release after the vote that the invoice was jammed via as a part of a secretive course of.
“We’re hopeful that the Senate will take into account the details, hearken to their constituents, and understand the impression on the financial system, 7 million small companies, and the 170 million People who use our service,” Haurek stated.
In anticipation of the vote, a Chinese language overseas ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, accused Washington of resorting to political instruments when U.S. companies fail to compete. He stated the hassle would disrupt regular enterprise operations and undermine investor confidence “and can ultimately backfire on the U.S. itself.”
Total, 197 Republican lawmakers voted for the measure and 15 towards. On the Democratic facet, 155 voted for the invoice and 50 towards.
Some Republican opponents of the invoice stated the U.S. ought to warn customers if there are knowledge privateness and propaganda issues, however the last selection needs to be left with customers.
“The reply to authoritarianism is just not extra authoritarianism,” stated Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif. “The reply to CCP-style propaganda is just not CCP-style oppression. Allow us to decelerate earlier than we blunder down this very steep and slippery slope.”
Democrats additionally warned of the impression a ban would have on customers within the U.S., together with entrepreneurs and enterprise house owners. One of many no votes got here from Rep. Jim Himes, the rating Democratic member of the Home Intelligence Committee.
“One of many key variations between us and people adversaries is the truth that they shut down newspapers, broadcast stations, and social media platforms. We don’t,” Himes stated. “We belief our residents to be worthy of their democracy. We don’t belief our authorities to resolve what info they could or might not see.”
The day earlier than the Home vote, prime nationwide safety officers within the Biden administration held a closed-door briefing with lawmakers to debate TikTok and the nationwide safety implications. Lawmakers are balancing these safety issues towards a want to not restrict free speech on-line.
“What we’ve tried to do right here is be very considerate and deliberate about the necessity to pressure a divestiture of TikTok with out granting any authority to the chief department to control content material or go after any American firm,” stated Rep. Mike Gallagher, the invoice’s writer, as he emerged from the briefing.
TikTok has lengthy denied that it could possibly be used as a device of the Chinese language authorities. The corporate has stated it has by no means shared U.S. person knowledge with Chinese language authorities and received’t accomplish that whether it is requested. Thus far, the U.S. authorities additionally has not supplied proof that reveals TikTok shared such info with Chinese language authorities.
Republican leaders moved rapidly to deliver up the invoice after its introduction final week by Gallagher and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Unwell. A Home committee authorised the laws unanimously, on a 50-0 vote, even after their workplaces have been inundated with calls from TikTok customers demanding they drop the hassle. Some workplaces even shut off their telephones due to the onslaught. Supporters of the invoice stated the hassle backfired.
“(It) supplied members a preview of how the platform could possibly be weaponized to inject disinformation into our system,” Gallagher stated.
Lawmakers in each events are anxious to confront China on a variety of points. The Home shaped a particular committee to deal with China-related points. And Schumer directed committee chairs to start working with Republicans on a bipartisan China competitors invoice.
Schumer is more likely to really feel some stress from inside his personal occasion to maneuver on the TikTok laws. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner introduced after the Home vote that he’ll work to “get this invoice handed via the Senate and signed into regulation.”
In a joint assertion with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the highest Republican on the intelligence panel, Warner stated that “we’re united in our concern concerning the nationwide safety menace posed by TikTok — a platform with huge energy to affect and divide People whose father or mother firm ByteDance stays legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese language Communist Occasion”
Roughly 30 TikTok influencers and others who traveled with them spoke out towards the invoice on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. They chanted phrases like “Maintain TikTok” forward of the vote. In addition they held indicators that learn “TikTok modified my life for the higher” and “TikTok helped me develop my enterprise.”
Dan Salinger, a Sacramento, California-based TikTok creator in attendance, stated he began creating content material on the app in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic purely out of boredom. However since then his account, which options movies about his life and his father, who suffers from dementia, has grown in recognition. As we speak, he has 2 million followers on the app.
“I’m really appalled for a lot of causes,” Salinger stated. “The velocity with which they’re pushing this invoice via doesn’t give sufficient time for People to voice their issues and opinions.”
Former President Donald Trump has spoken out towards the Home effort, however his vp, Mike Pence, is urging Schumer to deliver the Home invoice to a vote.
“There may be little doubt that this app is Chinese language spyware and adware and {that a} sale to a non-foreign adversary firm is in the perfect pursuits of the American folks,” Pence stated in a letter to Schumer.
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Related Press workers author Didi Tang contributed to this report.