By MARY CLARE JALONICK and HALELUYA HADERO (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A law that may ban TikTok in the U.S. unless its Chinese owner sells part of the company has gained more support, after House Republican leaders added it to a group of bills that will provide aid to Ukraine and Israel. The law might become official as early as next week if Congress acts fast.
The TikTok law, which was approved by the House in March and has wide support from both parts of Congress, was added to the House foreign policy package after discussions with the Senate about how long the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. would have to sell its share. to sell its stake for the app to keep running in the United States. President Joe Biden has said he would approve the TikTok law if it is passed to him.
The law was added to the national security package after getting a key approval from Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, who stated that she successfully pushed to extend the time from six months to a year to give the company enough time to find a buyer. While the original law had a six-month deadline for TikTok to be sold, the new House bill would give nine months and a possible three-month extension if a sale was in progress.
“Extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done,” said Cantwell, who had previously expressed doubts about the law. ”I support this updated legislation.”
If Congress passes the TikTok law, it would be an unusual and exceptional moment in which both parties come together against one company – something lawmakers are typically hesitant to do. But the popular social media app has caused widespread anger on Capitol Hill, where there is bipartisan worry about Chinese threats to the United States and where few members use the platform themselves.
Opponents believe the ban would be against the constitution, and there would probably be legal challenges if it is approved. The company, content creators who earn money on the app, and some of the app’s 170 million U.S. users, many of whom are young, have strongly opposed the idea. In some cases, lawmakers have received profanity-laced calls from users who were asked by the app to call their representatives in Congress.
Up to now, the U.S. government has not given proof that shows TikTok shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government, or that Chinese authorities have played with the company’s popular algorithm, which influences what Americans see.
Since mid-March, the company has spent $5 million on TV ads opposing the law, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking firm. The ads have included a variety of content creators, including a nun, talking about the positive effects of the platform on their lives and arguing a ban would violate the First Amendment.
TikTok, who declined to comment on how much it was spending on TV ads, has also spent money on Facebook and Instagram ads that, among other things, discuss investments in data safety. In addition, the company has undertaken a lobbying effort in Washington that involved bringing in content creators who depend on the platform for income.
Alex Haurek, a company spokesperson, said in a statement on Thursday that it is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using important foreign and humanitarian aid as a cover to rush through a bill that would violate the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, harm 7 million businesses, and close down a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy every year.
Dan Ives, a tech analyst at the financial advisory firm Wedbush Securities, stated that executing such a sale would be very complicated, even with an extended timeline.
The platform would have a high price tag that only big tech companies could afford, likely raising antitrust concerns. Additionally, there is the problem of TikTok’s algorithm, the app’s secret sauce for suggesting videos to users. The bill prohibits ByteDance from controlling TikTok’s algorithm, and a potential sale is likely to face opposition from China, which has been restricting the export of recommendation algorithms by Chinese tech companies.
Ives said that acquiring TikTok without the algorithm would be like purchasing a Ferrari without the engine.
Some investors, including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary, have already expressed interest in buying TikTok’s U.S. business. If a sale is not approved and the platform is banned, Ives stated that it would benefit Snapchat, Meta, and YouTube, which have been facing tough competition from TikTok in recent years.
Passing the bill would be the most significant action Congress has taken in decades to regulate the tech industry. For years, Congress has failed to act on bills that would safeguard users’ privacy, hold companies more accountable for their content, and establish some restrictions around artificial intelligence.
Nevertheless, it is a narrow attempt to address one company when many lawmakers want broader changes. A bipartisan group of senators has been advocating for a Senate bill to protect children online, and Cantwell recently reached an agreement with the Republican chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, on legislation to safeguard Americans’ data privacy.
Although most lawmakers support the TikTok bill, some have contended that it would create a dangerous precedent.
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul expressed on X after the House passed it that “The passage of the House TikTok ban is not just a misguided overreach; it’s a draconian measure that stifles free expression, tramples constitutional rights, and disrupts the economic pursuits of millions of Americans.”
Others are supporting the app’s devoted users.
Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, who is much younger than most of his colleagues at 27, posted on X before the House vote that “I am a NO on the TikTok bill we are about to vote on.”
Frost stated, “I believe the bill does set TikTok up to be banned. There are first amendment issues I see with taking away a platform that over 170 million Americans use, and this won’t fix the serious issues we have with data privacy.”
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Hadero reported from New York.
