Washington D.C. – During a House Energy & Commerce Committee meeting on Thursday, lawmakers voted unanimously, 50-0, to advance a bill that would ban the popular video-sharing app, TikTok, in the United States. The decision to move the bill forward was met with strong opposition from TikTok users who received notifications urging them to “speak up now” and contact their representatives to oppose the bill.
According to a senior GOP aide, members of Congress from both parties were “livid” over the notifications and subsequent calls they received from TikTok users. Some callers were as young as teenagers and made passionate pleas, with some even threatening suicide or violence if the bill were to pass.
“It’s like we called into an AA meeting,” Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas told FOX Business in an interview. He went on to explain that the overwhelming number of calls and the emotional reactions from callers played a significant role in swaying those lawmakers who were initially on the fence about the bill.
Roy also noted that it was concerning how much influence TikTok wielded over its young users, especially when it came to political issues. “It’s clear how much TikTok has their tentacles into these people’s lives,” Roy said. “And it’s so much so that they’re using data to target them.”
The bill has gained the support of House Speaker Mike Johnson and could soon move to the House floor for a full vote. If passed, the bill would require TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest its ownership of the app and other applications within 180 days. It would also create a process for the executive branch to prohibit access to any app owned by a foreign adversary if deemed a threat to national security.
Lawmakers have expressed concerns that TikTok, a Chinese-owned company, could potentially be forced by the Chinese government to share American user data. While TikTok has denied these allegations, they have also argued that the bill is an “outright ban” that would violate the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and harm small businesses.
Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher, who introduced the bill alongside ranking member Raja Krishamoorthi, focused on the national security aspect, stating that the bill was an effort to force a change in TikTok’s ownership and prevent potential influence from the Chinese Communist Party.
TikTok, for its part, has made attempts to appease American lawmakers by promising to store U.S. user data on servers managed by software company Oracle, completely separate from ByteDance. They have also pledged to make this arrangement transparent and monitored by outside observers.
However, lawmakers remain skeptical, with Rep. Gallagher stating, “Today, it’s about our bill and it’s about intimidating members considering that bill, but tomorrow it could be misinformation or lies about an election, about a war, about any number of things.”
The debate over TikTok’s future in the United States highlights the ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China, as well as concerns about data privacy and security. The bill will now move to the House floor for a full vote and could potentially lead to the ban of TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps in the country.
