House passes bill banning TikTok; measure moves to Senate

(NewsNation) — The House on Wednesday approved a bill that would ban TikTok in the U.S. if Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell the social media app.

TikTok’s fate now lies in the hands of the Senate, especially since President Joe Biden said Friday he would sign the bill if it passes Congress.

“I want to make sure that America is protected,” co-sponsor of the bill Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, said. “This is not a ban, ByteDance can divest themselves of this, but the Communist Chinese want our information.”

But TikTok says the bill’s proponents are engaging in semantics.

“This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason:  it’s a ban,” a TikTok spokesperson told NewsNation. “We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service.”

House Republicans were confident the bill banning the social media giant would pass, saying ByteDance could share Americans’ information with the Chinese government. The Senate previously said it would conduct a thorough review of the bill before it is put to a vote.

For years, lawmakers and government officials in Washington have said TikTok, which has over 150 million active users in the U.S., poses national security concerns, citing the Chinese government’s close relationship with owner ByteDance and potential to access private data or conduct “influence operations.”

“We have given TikTok a clear choice: Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP, and remain operational in the United States; or side with the CCP and face the consequences,” Rep. Cathy Rodgers, R-Wash., said during the debate ahead of the vote.

TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew was expected to visit the Capitol this week as part of the company’s pushback against the proposed bill.

While the move to ban the app has bipartisan support, some Republicans have come out recently against it, most notably former President Donald Trump. He said Monday on CNBC that he opposed the ban on the grounds it would strengthen Facebook, which he called an “enemy of the people.”

Trump’s comments came as a surprise, given it was his administration that initially attempted to ban TikTok in 2020.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told NewsNation’s Leland Vittert that a ban on the social media site would be a constitutional issue for 170 million users in the U.S.

“Well, there is this little sticking point, and it’s called the Constitution, the Bill of Rights,” Paul, who serves on the Senate’s Committee on Foreign Relations, said. “You can’t just pass a law and take someone’s property.”

Paul also warned that banning TikTok would also set a dangerous precedent, with the U.S. beating “the Chinese Communists by becoming (like) Chinese authoritarians and banning it in our country.”

Republicans backing the bill largely dismissed concerns about Trump’s backlash, which has the potential to sway the party from passing the bill.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the lead co-sponsor of the bill, said there is a “great bipartisan core” behind it.

“The bill doesn’t involve any First Amendment concerns. It’s not about content. It’s not about censorship. It’s about foreign ownership of, foreign adversary ownership of social media applications,” Gallagher said.

But Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., has slammed the bill, saying it puts limits on free speech and that the process is being rushed.

Last week, TikTok blocked users from entering the app unless they called their congressional representative. The move appeared to backfire on TikTok, as more members of Congress decided to support the measure.