The House of Representatives passed a bill that would ban TikTok if the app’s parent company doesn’t sell it on Wednesday (March 13). House members believed China-based company ByteDance represented a security threat. The legislation aimed to force ByteDance to divest TikTok within roughly six months.
House members passed the bill with a vote of 352 to 65. 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans opposed the legislation. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was among the politicians who voted against the bill.
“I’m voting NO on the TikTok forced sale bill,” she wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “This bill was incredibly rushed, from committee to vote in 4 days, with little explanation. There are serious antitrust and privacy questions here, and any national security concerns should be laid out to the public prior to a vote.”
The bill moved to the Senate where it faced an uncertain future. TikTok urged the Senate to reject the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.
“This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: it’s a ban,” a TikTok spokesperson said. “We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses and the 170 million Americans who use our service.”
Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher claimed the bill was not a ban despites its potential impact. If the bill became a law, app store operators would be outlawed from making TikTok available for download under ByteDance’s ownership.
“It puts the choice squarely in the hands of TikTok to sever their relationship with the Chinese Communist Party,” Gallagher said, per CNN. “As long as ByteDance no longer owns the company, TikTok can continue to survive.”
President Joe Biden said he would sign the bill into law if it reached his desk. The legislation would allow the president to identify social media apps as national security threats if the platforms were “subject to the control of a foreign adversary.”
