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A bipartisan coalition of 20 House lawmakers wants legislation to force TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance to choose between divesting the platform or facing a ban in the U.S.
Many previous efforts by American officials to restrict TikTok’s operations have stalled, but the new proposal is being fast-tracked by House committee leaders planning to retire rather than face the app’s users at the ballot box in November. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will review the proposal Thursday, according to the committee’s outgoing chairwoman, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington Republican.
House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mike Gallagher is a leading co-sponsor of the bill and is likewise eager to see the bill passed before he leaves Capitol Hill.
The Wisconsin Republican, whose surprise decision last month to quit Congress jolted the GOP conference, said Wednesday that his new proposal represents the best chance for TikTok’s fans to keep the app operational while fighting against national security threats from China.
“If you value your personal freedom and privacy online, if you care about Americans’ national security at home and, yes, even if you want TikTok to stick around in the United States, this bill offers the only real step toward each of those goals,” Mr. Gallagher said.
Ten Republicans and 10 Democrats co-sponsored the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which they wrote to prevent app stores and web hosting services from making such applications accessible.
The bill gives the president power to designate threatening social media applications that will face prohibition unless the apps sever ties to the controlling foreign adversary via divestment, according to the House CCP Committee.
President Biden’s reelection campaign is leveraging TikTok to reach impressionable voters, raising doubt about his appetite to restrict the platform’s operations. His administration, however, is working closely with the lawmakers on the new push to get it on sound legal footing, a National Security Council spokesperson told Punchbowl News.
When asked about Mr. Biden’s use of TikTok, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois Democrat and co-sponsor of the legislation, said he wouldn’t tell the president how to campaign.
The congressman told reporters Wednesday that the bill is not an attack on TikTok.
“This bill is not a ban and it’s really not about TikTok,” he said. “This bill is a choice, and it’s a choice for ByteDance as well as any other social media app controlled by a foreign adversary.”
TikTok sees it differently.
“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it,” the firm wrote on X from its TikTok Policy account. “This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs.”
The House CCP Committee replied on X and told TikTok, “Break up with the CCP. It’s not hard.”
Ms. Rodgers said Tuesday that she planned for her committee to advance the legislation this week.
Momentum for the proposal came after a classified lawmakers-only briefing last month on TikTok with national security officials that was requested by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, Tennessee Republican, who has announced plans to retire as well, and Rep. August Pfluger, Texas Republican.
Whether the Senate will consider the House’s proposal remains to be determined, but Mr. Gallagher said Wednesday he has spoken about it with Sen. Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat leading the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Mr. Gallagher told reporters that lawmakers in both chambers who plan on sticking around need not worry about the bill costing them votes with young Americans who spend time on the app.
“I understand the desire to reach younger voters; people are in the business of getting reelected here, but in the carefully narrowly focused bill we’ve come up with here, TikTok could live on, and people could do whatever they want on it, provided there is that separation,” he said. “Again, it is not a ban. Think of this as a surgery designed to remove the tumor and thereby save the patient in the process.”
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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