House approves bill that could shut down TikTok

Strictly speaking, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act doesn’t ban TikTok—or at least that’s what its sponsors have repeatedly stressed when asked about it. They argue it’s bigger than that: a culmination of bipartisan concern over China’s influence that balances the First Amendment rights of the social media platform’s users and American security.

TikTok sees it as a ban.

“We had little children calling into our office basically saying questions like: What is Congress? Can I have my TikTok back? I think one member’s office got a call from some saying they were going to commit suicide if TikTok was turned off,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., one of the bill’s chief architects, said Thursday. He said callers in key congressional districts seemed to have received prompts from TikTok videos to protest the legislation—and he doesn’t think that’s an accident.

“The fact that they used geo-location targeting to go after minor children to call congressional offices … proved the point of why people wanted to pass legislation,” Krishnamoorthi said.

That sentiment came to a head on Wednesday morning as the House of Representatives passed the bill by a landslide vote of 352-65. One member voted present.

TikTok, a social media platform owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, stormed to popularity in 2016 when it gained 100 million users in under a year. The app allows users to share short videos and watch videos tailored to their interests.

The bill gives TikTok an ultimatum: Either transfer ownership of the company to a U.S.-based buyer within six months or incur crushing penalties. Specifically, the bill prohibits any “foreign adversary–controlled application” from distribution in digital marketplaces like Apple’s App Store. Violating such a mandate would trigger a $5,000 fine per user on the platform—a staggering amount for the app’s 150 million American accounts.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., the chief author of the bill, said he has no problem with the app itself. It’s TikTok’s proximity to China that concerns him.

“TikTok can continue to exist, and people can post whatever they want as long as they sever that basic tie with the Chinese Communist Party,” Gallagher said.

That’s why, in his view, the bill isn’t a ban. It gives TikTok full control over whether it will continue operations in the United States. Gallagher also noted that Congress has done something like this before.

In 2019, Congress labeled China’s Huawei Technologies Ltd. a national security risk and took action to weed the company’s technology out of U.S. networks. At that time, Congress saw a potential for the company to collect American secrets from it’s routers, networks, and other pieces of hardware. But a video-sharing social media app? I asked Gallagher if he could point to a discernable, tangible threat posed by TikTok.

“We can point to censorship on TikTok, targeting of journalists, targeting of ethnic minorities,” Gallagher said.

He also pointed out the platform’s growing influence with younger audiences—especially as it becomes an increasingly larger part of how Americans consume news.

“ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party,” Gallagher said. “We have to ask ourselves whether it is prudent and wise to let America’s foremost adversary control the foremost news platform in America. I think it’s not.”

The bill faces some opposition and has divided even close allies in Congress. On Tuesday, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., broke with the bulk of the conservative-leaning Freedom Caucus to express concerns about setting a precedent by banning a particular business from a particular county.

“I don’t want President Biden from telling me what apps I can have on my phone,” Massie said.”

He noted that as long as the country in question falls under the “foreign adversary” designation set by the executive, he doesn’t see a clear limit on what companies could be next.

“I mean Apple has factories over there,” Massie pointed out, referring to China. “What if you ban every phone that’s substantially made by a foreign-owned adversary?”

Massie also noted that the bill doesn’t punish China in any way. The penalties laid out by the app would apply to Apple and Bytedance. To him, it doesn’t make sense to punish private companies as opposed to the actual source of concern: the Chinese government.

Ultimately, however, a far larger portion of the House pressed to pass the bill. In a rare sight, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., huddled together moments before the vote. Both took turns speaking on the floor in support of the bill.

Having now cleared the House of Representatives, the bill heads to the Senate, where it faces an uncertain fate. The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, came to the Capitol on Tuesday and spent much of the day meeting with senators.

President Joe Biden has said he supports the legislation.

“If they pass it, I’ll sign it,” Biden said on Friday of last week.