WASHINGTON — A bill that might ban TikTok within the U.S. if its China-based owner doesn't sell its stake got a serious boost late Wednesday when House Republican leaders included it in a legislative package that features aid to Ukraine and Israel provided. The bill could take effect as early as next week if Congress acts quickly.
The TikTok bill, which passed the House of Representatives in March and has broad support in each chambers, was included within the House package as leaders worked to win votes for the foreign aid laws and after with the Senate Negotiations were held about how long the Chinese technology company ByteDance would stay Ltd. would should sell its share of the app to proceed operating within the United States. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the TikTok bill if it reached his desk.
The new edition of the law received a key endorsement from Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell, who said in an announcement that she successfully pushed to increase the period from six months to a yr to provide the corporate enough time to search out a buyer. While the unique bill set a six-month deadline for selling TikTok, the revised laws would allow for nine months and a possible three-month extension if a sale were underway.
“Extending the divestiture period is necessary to ensure a new buyer has enough time to complete a deal,” said Cantwell, who has previously expressed doubts concerning the bill. “I support this updated legislation.”
If Congress passes the TikTok bill, it might be a unprecedented and weird moment by which each parties unite against an organization – something lawmakers are typically reluctant to do. But the favored social media app has sparked widespread outrage on Capitol Hill, where there may be bipartisan concern about Chinese threats to the United States and where few members use the platform itself.
Opponents imagine the ban can be unconstitutional and that it might likely face legal challenges if passed. There has been aggressive pushback from the corporate, the content creators who generate income on the app and a number of the platform's 170 million U.S. users, lots of whom are young. In some cases, lawmakers received calls containing profanities from users who were urged by the app to call their representatives in Congress.
So far, the U.S. government has provided no evidence that TikTok shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or that Chinese authorities tinkered with the corporate's popular algorithm that influences what Americans see.
TikTok has spent $5 million on television promoting against the law since mid-March, in accordance with AdImpact, an promoting tracking company. The ads featured a variety of content creators, including a nun, praising the platform's positive impact on their lives and arguing that a ban would trample on the First Amendment.
TikTok has also spent money on Facebook and Instagram ads that discuss investing in data security, amongst other things. The company also launched a lobbying campaign in Washington that included enlisting content creators who depend on the platform to generate revenue.
Alex Haurek, a spokesman for the corporate, said in an announcement Thursday: “It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian aid to once again push through a ban bill that would trample on the right to free speech.” Destroying 170 million Americans, destroying 7 million businesses, and shutting down a platform that contributes $24 billion annually to the U.S. economy.”
Nadya Okamoto, a content creator who has around 4 million followers on TikTok, said she has had conversations with other YouTubers who’ve “so much anger and fear” over the bill and the impact it can have on their lives. feel. The 26-year-old, whose company August sells menstrual products and is thought for her commitment to destigmatizing menstruation, earns most of her income from TikTok.
“This will have a real impact,” she said.
Dan Ives, a technology analyst at financial advisory firm Wedbush Securities, said executing such a sale can be very complex, even on an extended timeframe.
The platform would include a high price tag that only the biggest tech firms could afford, likely raising antitrust concerns. Then there's the issue with TikTok's algorithm, the app's secret sauce that recommends videos to users. The bill bans ByteDance from control of the TikTok algorithm, and a possible sale is more likely to face resistance from China, which suppresses the export of advice algorithms by Chinese tech firms.
“Buying TikTok without the algorithm would be like buying a Ferrari without the engine,” Ives said.
Some investors, including former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O'Leary, have already expressed interest in buying TikTok's U.S. operations. If a sale isn't approved and the platform is definitely banned, Ives said that might be a “dream scenario” for Snapchat, Meta and YouTube, which have faced stiff competition from TikTok in recent times.
If the bill actually passes, it might be probably the most significant step Congress has taken to manage the tech industry in a long time. Congress has failed for years to pass laws that might, amongst other things, protect user privacy, protect children online, hold firms more accountable for his or her content and set looser guardrails for artificial intelligence.
Still, it's a detailed call at a time when many lawmakers want broader changes.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has been pushing for technology industry regulation for years. If the TikTok law passes, he said, “it will be the first guardrail we put in place on social media.”
Warner said there are lots of other things Congress must do, “but you have to start somewhere.”
While most lawmakers support the TikTok bill, some say it might set a dangerous precedent.
Others defend the app's loyal users.
“I’m a NO to the TikTok bill we’re about to vote on,” Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost posted on X ahead of the House vote. At 27, Frost is significantly younger than most of his colleagues.
“I believe the bill will end up banning TikTok,” Frost said. “I see First Amendment issues in eliminating a platform used by over 170 million Americans, and that will not solve the serious privacy issues we have.”
Jenna Leventoff, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, previewed possible First Amendment challenges to the bill.
“Congress cannot take away the rights of over 170 million Americans who use TikTok to express themselves, engage politically and access information from around the world,” she said.
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