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The House passed a bill Wednesday that intends to leave TikTok’s China-based owner, ByteDance, with two choices: divest the popular app or face a ban in the U.S.
President Biden has said he is ready to sign the restriction into law, but the bill faces obstacles in the Senate fueled by the app’s users who will vote in November.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, Wisconsin Republican and a co-sponsor of the legislation, said Congress must ensure TikTok has a future as a company for Americans or for the Chinese Communist Party, but not both.
“The Chinese Communist Party does not have a First Amendment right to conduct malign influence operations in the United States,” Mr. Gallagher said in a video on X. “We need to cut out the Chinese Communist Party tumor from TikTok.”
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers authored the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would stop app stores and hosting services from making foreign-adversary-controlled apps accessible online.
SEE ALSO: Chinese officials chastise U.S. actions on TikTok
The bill doesn’t directly ban TikTok but threatens a blockade if ByteDance doesn’t divest.
Lawmakers have expressed various reasons for wanting to sever TikTok’s ties to China, including concerns about data theft, espionage and foreign manipulation of Americans that could result in election interference.
Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican and a co-sponsor of the legislation, said TikTok’s data collection on Americans is troubling.
“This is designed to be a framework that will allow us to ensure that we don’t have the Chinese Communist Party owning American data and using it nefariously against the American people,” Mr. Roy told reporters Tuesday.
Lawmakers’ concerns have heightened with U.S. intelligence community alerts about China’s use of TikTok to influence Americans’ behavior.
The intelligence community’s annual threat assessment published Monday explicitly called out TikTok in its warning about the Chinese Communist Party’s global covert influence operations.
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told lawmakers on Tuesday that Americans must understand that businesses in China are compelled to cooperate with the government.
Testifying before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, he said Americans must decide whether they want the Chinese communist government to control what information they see online via algorithms.
“When it comes to the algorithm, and the recommendation algorithm, and the ability to conduct influence operations, that is extraordinarily difficult to detect,” Mr. Wray said. “And that’s what makes it such a pernicious risk.”
The Chinese government has sharply criticized the U.S. campaign, and TikTok has mobilized its users to lobby against the legislation and won a few allies on Capitol Hill.
“This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It’s a ban,” the company’s U.S.-based operations said in a statement after the vote. “We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, seven million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service.”
Rep. Maxwell Frost, Florida Democrat, said he is against spying but opposed the bill because it was aimed too narrowly at one company.
“Just because there is a legitimate problem here we need to fix doesn’t automatically say by any means necessary is OK,” he told reporters.
Mr. Gallagher told reporters he had discussed the bill with senators and praised the work of Sens. Mark R. Warner, Virginia Democrat, and Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, on addressing TikTok.
“I know there’s a lot of interest,” Mr. Gallagher said.
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, offered a far more neutral take on how the House measure would be welcomed. The Senate has a crowded legislative calendar this election year.
“The Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement released by his office.
Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, is among the legislation’s opponents.
Mr. Paul said Wednesday on X that people supporting a TikTok ban are trying to scare Americans with erroneous claims regarding the app’s algorithm, TikTok’s ownership and the nationality of the company’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew.
The bill moved quickly through the House after it was introduced and reviewed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week.
The longer the bill is debated, the more of a political issue it will likely become.
Although Mr. Biden welcomes the legislation, his campaign has joined the platform.
Former President Donald Trump, Mr. Biden’s Republican challenger, argues that any ban on TikTok would benefit Meta’s Facebook and other platforms.
Mr. Trump’s stand is expected to create obstacles for Senate Republicans calculating the political risk of bucking him.
• This article is based in part on wire service reports.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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