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The House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced a bill on Thursday to crack down on TikTok’s owner ByteDance, while the wildly popular China-founded video-sharing app attempted to mobilize its users to pressure Congress to drop the proposal.
Following the committee’s approval without any opposition, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is awaiting final consideration by the full House. The bill intends to prevent app stores and hosting services from making foreign adversary-controlled apps available online.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers said Thursday that TikTok’s China-based ownership posed a national security threat.
“TikTok’s access to 170 million American users makes it a valuable propaganda tool for the [Chinese Communist Party] to exploit and use for nefarious purposes,” Ms. Rodgers, Washington Republican, said. “Through this access, the app is able to collect nearly every data point imaginable, from people’s location, to what they search for on their devices, to who they’re connecting with, and other forms of sensitive information.”
A bipartisan coalition of 20 lawmakers, evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, co-sponsored the legislation that empowers the president to designate as threatening to prohibit certain social apps controlled by foreign adversaries unless they sever all ties with the owners. Lawmakers met with the intelligence community on Thursday before marking up the bill, according to Ms. Rodgers.
TikTok views the bill as a ban on its operations and a violation of the First Amendment, insisting the company’s U.S.-based operation does not work at the behest of the Chinese government. In Beijing, government-linked media have called the move a protectionist measure against a successful Chinese tech company, and noted that President Biden’s own reelection campaign recently joined TikTok in an effort to reach younger voters.
TikTok warned Thursday after the vote that the legislation will destroy the livelihoods of countless creators who use the site to reach customers or share their art and talents.
“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States,” the company said on X via its TikTok Policy account.
The company has also tried to mobilize its fan base: TikTok users reported receiving alerts and push notifications through the app directing them to lobby Congress against the legislation.
“TikTok is at risk of being shut down in the U.S. Call your representative now,” read a push notification shared by Taylor Hulsey, staffer for Rep. Vern Buchanan, Florida Republican.
Mr. Hulsey said on X the tactic was having an effect.
“We’re getting a lot of calls from high schoolers asking what a congressman is,” Mr. Hulsey said on X. “Yes, really.”
Casey Lewis, head of content for the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, said when she opened the app she got a message saying Congress was planning a total ban of TikTok that would strip Americans’ right to free expression and would damage millions of businesses.
“When I opened TikTok today, I got this pop-up that gives you no option to exit or swipe away, the only action is to ’Call now,’” Ms. Lewis said on X, accompanied by a screenshot of the app directing her to call her representative in Congress.
Lawmakers decried the lobbying push. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party chairman Mike Gallagher, who co-authored the bill, said TikTok was “lying to the American people and interfering with the legislative process in Congress.”
“TikTok will do anything they can — including manipulating and exploiting American users — in order to prevent CCP-controlled ByteDance from being banned from the U.S.,” Ms. Rodgers added on X.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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