Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) remained noncommittal about bringing legislation against TikTok to a vote, but he did say that the Senate will review the House-passed bill that would compel its Chinese owner to sell the app or face a ban in the United States.
On March 13 the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act passed the House by an overwhelming vote of 352–65 with what appeared to be good momentum among a bipartisan group of lawmakers.
Other leaders in the upper chamber of Congress were more enthusiastic about passing the legislation, however, with Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Vice Chairman Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) praising the House and urging their body of Congress to take action.
“We were encouraged by today’s strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, and look forward to working together to get this bill passed through the Senate and signed into law.”
“TikTok is controlled by Chinese company ByteDance. ByteDance engineers in China have access to TikTok user data [and] use AI processes to build profiles on TikTok users in America.
“Under Chinese law, ByteDance must use those user profiles however the [government] of China orders them to use them,” Mr. Rubio went on.
“China is already using ByteDance profiles to target and influence the behavior, values, ideology, political opinions, [and] votes of American TikTok users.”
The White House called for “swift action” by the Senate on the legislation shortly after news broke that the bill passed the lower chamber of Congress.
“We are glad to see this bill move forward,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement to reporters aboard Air Force One on March 13.
“We will look to the Senate to take swift action,” Ms. Jean-Pierre added. “As we have said … this bill is important and we welcome ongoing efforts to address the threat posed by certain technology services operating in the United States that put at risk Americans’ personal information and broader national security, including through the manipulation by foreign powers of Americans’ views and beliefs.”
Ms. Jean-Pierre said the White House hopes the Senate “takes action and takes this up very quickly.”
In the House, the legislation passed with 197 Republicans and 155 Democrats voting in favor of the bill, while 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against it. One Democrat voted “present.”
If passed, the measure would bar TikTok from using U.S. app stores and hosting services unless the social media behemoth divests from its parent company, ByteDance, which is based in China.
Quickly moving through Congress, the measure received a historic unanimous vote from the House Energy and Commerce Committee two days after its introduction on March 5.
The legislation was encouraged due to concerns by security experts who worry that predatory surveillance, censorship, and the dissemination of state-backed misinformation might turn TikTok into a weapon against Americans.
To address this concern, the measure establishes a procedure for the president to designate social media apps controlled by specific foreign states as risks to national security.
These apps would then be prevented from operating until they transfer ownership to American corporations.
Ultimately, the measure would grant the president the authority to compel the sale of any social media platform owned by a Chinese, Iranian, North Korean, or Russian entity with more than 1 million members.
While urging its users to contact their politicians and oppose the measure, TikTok has condemned the decision as a violation of free speech.
“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it,” a TikTok spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email.
“This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs.”
Former President Donald Trump expressed his conviction that social media app TikTok presents a threat to U.S. national security.
However, he reiterated concerns that a ban on the application would favor rivals such as Facebook.
In an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on March 11, when asked if he considers TikTok a threat to national security, President Trump responded, “I do believe that.
