Unlock the Publisher’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A powerful US Congressional committee has passed a bill that would remove TikTok from app stores unless its Chinese owner divests itself of the video-sharing platform, ignoring a lobbying campaign that had enlisted thousands of its users.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the bipartisan bill by a 50-0 vote on Thursday, after a classified briefing from officials about the risks the app posed to Americans because of its ownership by the Chinese group ByteDance.
US security officials say Beijing could access the personal data of the 170 million Americans who use TikTok because of Chinese laws requiring domestic companies to provide information to the government.
In the hours before the vote, TikTok used its app to invite users to call their representatives in Congress, providing the phone numbers of the relevant offices based on the ZIP codes that users had registered. Congressional offices reported being inundated with calls.
After the vote, TikTok claimed that lawmakers were “attempting to deprive 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression.”
In another push for the legislation, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said it was another important bill to “tackle China.” Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said he will bring the bill to the House for a full vote next week.
Johnson’s support and the unanimous vote suggest the bill will have little trouble passing the House. Supporters hope this will give the measure momentum in the Senate, where previous efforts to limit TikTok have struggled over concerns including the impact on free speech.
The White House also supports the legislation, which was written with the help of National Security Council officials.
“Clearly the alignment between the administration, both parties and the intelligence community meant that this attempt to oppose the bill today failed spectacularly,” said Eric Sayers, a security expert at the American Enterprise Institute.
Mikie Sherrill, a retired U.S. Navy helicopter pilot and Democratic congressman on the House China Committee, said this week that Congress must ignore the political implications of dealing with the hugely popular app in order to protect America’s national security.
“I’ve heard too many times that it’s too popular, or that it’s too big to deal with,” Sherrill said. “I’m tired of hearing these arguments when we know the right thing to do for our country is to address this problem.”
TikTok responded to criticism by highlighting its $1.5 billion investment in “Project Texas,” a corporate restructuring designed to isolate U.S. user data from China.
TikTok has argued to its users that Congress wants to ban the app, a claim that drew backlash from lawmakers who stressed they were happy for it to survive until it is no longer under Chinese ownership.
Before the vote, Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the China Committee, said TikTok users should view the surgery as “surgery designed to remove the tumor and thereby save the patient.”
A big question is whether the Senate will support the legislation as previous bills have stumbled. Emily Kilcrease, a technology and commerce expert at the think tank Center for a New American Security who sees a legitimate national security rationale for taking on TikTok, said the issue of free speech could remain an obstacle.
“The underlying problem is that, no matter how the bill or the text of the executive order is constructed, the activity targeted is one whose main function is related to speech, and therefore it is not easy to get out of prison when it comes to language issues,” he said.
The bill would ban app stores from distributing TikTok unless ByteDance divests the app within 180 days of passage. Allows ByteDance to file a legal challenge within 165 days of the date the bill becomes law.