Posted in: streaming, TV, YouTube | Tagged: biden, china, congress, house of representatives, TikTok, trump

U.S. House of Reps Passes Bill That Could Lead to TikTok Ban: Details

U.S. House of Representatives voted 352-65 to pass a bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. if owner ByteDance doesn't divest from the app.

If you live in the U.S. and you're on TikTok, then you might want to sit down for this one. Earlier today, the House of Representatives voted 352-65 to pass the "Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act" – a bill that received strong bipartisan support. If eventually signed into law, the bill would make it illegal for TikTok to be distributed or hosted in the U.S. (impacting 170+ million Americans) unless Chinese owner ByteDance divests its stake in the app over growing concerns that TikTok has become a national security threat.

First introduced by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) & Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) earlier this month, the bill was unanimously approved by a House committee vote of 50-0. Though the bill generalizes addresses "foreign adversary controlled application," it specifically cites ByteDance's TikTok in its wording. Along with detailing the heavy fines that would be levied on those in violation ($5,000 – and then multiplied by every U.S. user "determined to have accessed, maintained, or updated a foreign adversary controlled application," which would probably be a whole lot), the bill would also give the U.S. President a lot of wiggle room to decide which apps in the future should also be made to divest their stake in an app when it involves a questionable connection with a hostile foreign government). According to TikTok, approximately 60% of ByteDance is held by "global institutional investors," which include BlackRock, General Atlantic, Susquehanna International Group, and Sequoia – with 20% owned by the company's Chinese founders and 20% owned by other employees.

While President Joseph Biden has already promised to sign the bill into law if it reaches his desk, its future is far from certain. First, there are the expected legal challenges from TikTok and others over First Amendment issues – arguing that millions of users are having their freedom of expression infringed upon over security concerns that have been expressed but haven't been factually proven to exist. And then there's the matter of the other side of Congress – with the Senate not appearing to have any kind of counter-bill in play. While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) hasn't gone on record with a willingness to even bring the bill to the Senate floor, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has made it clear that he will look to kill any effort that he feels crosses the line into being unconstitutional. "I don't think Congress should be trying to take away the First Amendment rights of [170] million Americans," Paul expressed to The Washington Post. And then there's the GOP's 2024 POTUS nominee Donald Trump – who's actually saying that he's not thrilled with the idea of going after TikTok.

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