The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would
require TikTok owner ByteDance to sell the social media platform or face
a total ban in the United States.
The legislation now moves to the Senate, where its likelihood of passing
is uncertain. But with a landslide of support in the House — 352
Congress members voted in favor of the bill and only 65 voted against —
it’s clear that TikTok is facing its biggest existential threat yet in
the US.
Here’s what you need to know about the bill, how likely TikTok is to be
banned, and what that means for the platform’s 170 million US users.
The bill that passed in the House on Wednesday is the latest salvo in an
ongoing political battle over the platform, which exploded in popularity
after its emergence in 2017. It quickly surpassed Facebook, Instagram,
Snapchat and YouTube in downloads in 2018 and reported a 45% increase in
monthly active users between July 2020 and July 2022.
The platform’s meteoric rise alarmed some lawmakers, who believe that
TikTok’s China-based parent company could collect sensitive user data
and censor content that goes against the Chinese government.
TikTok has repeatedly stated it has not and would not share US user data
with the Chinese government, but lawmakers’ concerns were exacerbated by
news investigations that showed China-based employees at ByteDance had
accessed nonpublic data about US TikTok users.
TikTok has argued that US user data is not held in China but in
Singapore and in the US, where it is routed through cloud infrastructure
operated by Oracle, an American company. In 2023, TikTok opened a data
centre in Ireland where it handles EU citizen data.
These measures have not been sufficient for many US lawmakers, and in
March 2023 TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was called before Congress, where he
faced more than five hours of intensive questioning about these and
other practices. Lawmakers asked Chew about his own nationality,
accusing him of fealty to China. He is, in fact, Singaporean.
Various efforts to police TikTok and how it engages with US user data
have been floated in Congress in the past year, culminating in the bill
passed on Wednesday.
Is this bill really a TikTok ban?
Under the new bill, ByteDance would have 165 days to divest from TikTok,
meaning it would have to sell the social media platform to a company not
based in China. If it did not, app stores including the Apple App Store
and Google Play would be legally barred from hosting TikTok or providing
web-hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.
Authors of the bill have argued it does not constitute a ban, as it
gives ByteDance the opportunity to sell TikTok and avoid being blocked
in the US.
“TikTok could live on and people could do whatever they want on it
provided there is that separation,” said Representative Mike Gallagher,
the Republican chair of the House Select China committee.
“It is not a ban — think of this as a surgery designed to remove the
tumor and thereby save the patient in the process.”
TikTok has argued otherwise, stating that it is not clear whether China
would approve a sale or that it could even complete a sale within six
months.
“This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in
the United States,” the company said after the committee vote.
“The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their
constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of
businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of
countless creators across the country.”
A TikTok ad at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. File picture: AP
Photo/Frank Franklin II,
A TikTok ad at a baseball game at Yankee Stadium. File picture: AP
Photo/Frank Franklin II,
How did we get here?
TikTok has faced a number of bans and attempted bans in recent years,
starting with an executive order by Donald Trump in 2020, which was
ultimately blocked by courts on first amendment grounds. Trump has since
reversed his stance, now opposing a ban on TikTok. Joe Biden, by
contrast, has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
Montana attempted to impose a statewide ban on the app in 2023, but the
law was struck down by a federal judge over first amendment violations.
The app was banned on government-issued phones in the US in 2022, and as
of 2023 at least 34 states have also banned TikTok from government
devices. At least 50 universities in the US have banned TikTok from
on-campus wifi and university-owned computers.
The treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
(CFIUS) in March 2023 demanded ByteDance sell its TikTok shares or face
the possibility of the app being banned, Reuters reported, but no action
has been taken.
TikTok was banned in India in 2020 after a wave of dangerous
“challenges” led to the deaths of some users. The ban had a marked
effect on competition in India, handing a significant market to
YouTube’s Shorts and Instagram Reels, direct competitors of TikTok. The
app is not available in China itself, where Douyin, a separate app from
parent company ByteDance with firmer moderation, is widely used.
How would a ban on TikTok be enforced?
Due to the decentralised nature of the internet, enforcing a ban would
be complex. The bill passed by the House would penalise app stores daily
for making TikTok available for download, but for users who already have
the app on their phones, it would be difficult to stop individual use.
Internet service providers could also be forced to block IP addresses
associated with TikTok, but such practices can be easily evaded on
computer browsers by using a VPN, or virtual private network, which
re-routes computer connections to other locations.
To fully limit access to TikTok, the US government would have to employ
methods used by countries like Iran and China, which structure their
internet in a way that makes content restrictions more easily enforceable.
Who supports the potential TikTok ban?
While Trump — who started the war on TikTok in 2020 — has reversed his
stance on the potential ban, most Republican lawmakers have expressed
support of it. The Biden administration has also backed the bill, with
press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying the administration wants “to
see this bill get done so it can get to the president’s desk”. Biden’s
campaign joined TikTok last month.
Donald Trump has since reversed his stance, now opposing a ban on
TikTok. Joe Biden, by contrast, has said he will sign the bill if it
reaches his desk.
Despite Trump’s opposition to the bill, many Republicans are pushing
forward with the effort to ban TikTok or force its sale to an American
company.
“Well, he’s wrong. And by the way, he had his own executive orders and
his own actions he was doing, and now … he’s suddenly flipped around on
that,” said the representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican and member
of the far-right Freedom Caucus. “I mean, it’s not the first or last
time that I’ll disagree with the former president. The TikTok issue is
pretty straightforward.”
Who opposes the TikTok bill?
TikTok has vocally opposed the legislation, urging the Senate not to
pass it.
“We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their
constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7m small
businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service,” TikTok
spokesperson Alex Haurek said following Wednesday’s vote.
Within the House, 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against the
bill, including the Republican representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of
Georgia, who cited her experiences of being banned from social media.
House Democrats including Maxwell Frost of Florida and Delia Ramirez of
Illinois joined TikTok creators outside the Capitol following the vote
to express opposition to the bill.
Some Senate Democrats have already publicly opposed the bill, citing
freedom of speech concerns, and suggested measures that would address
concerns of foreign influence across social media without targeting
TikTok specifically. “We need curbs on social media, but we need those
curbs to apply across the board,” the senator Elizabeth Warren said.
The Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer issued a neutral statement
regarding the next steps in the Senate, stating it will “review the
legislation when it comes over from the House”.
Freedom of speech and civil rights advocacy groups have vehemently
opposed a ban, stating that such legislation could have a profound
impact on the internet at large. They have argued that TikTok’s data
practices, while problematic, are not substantially different from those
of US-based tech firms.
“TikTok isn’t perfect, but banning it is the wrong solution,” said Jenna
Ruddock, policy counsel at the media advocacy group Free Press. “Like
all popular platforms, including those that Meta and Google own, TikTok
collects too much data on its users. But unilaterally dismantling spaces
for free expression limits people’s access to information and cuts off
avenues for creators to build community.”
What will happen to TikTok next?
The bill still faces an uphill battle to become law. While Biden has
confirmed he would sign it, it still has to pass a Senate vote. It’s
unclear when that vote would take place, but TikTok is likely to
increase its lobbying efforts on the Hill as it moves forward, with CEO
Chew heading to Congress on Wednesday to speak with senators.
Even if the bill were to pass, it is likely to face similar challenges
on the grounds of free speech that prevented similar legislation – like
that from Trump in 2020 and the Montana ban of 2023 – from moving forward.
• The Guardian
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