House overwhelmingly voted for bill that could ban TikTok in US
TikTok is now one step closer to facing US app store removal after a successful US House vote Wednesday.
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The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill that could remove TikTok from US app stores.
The vote succeeded 352-65, with the majority of nos coming from Democrats on Wednesday.
If the bill becomes law it will require the Chinese firm Bytedance to divest from TikTok and other applications that it owns within 180 days. If ByteDance does not divest, TikTok would be removed from US app stores.
Legislators have argued that Bytedance could give the Chinese government access to TikTok user’s data, pointing to national security laws that require companies to help with intelligence gathering.
The bill will now require a successful US Senate vote and subsequent Presidential signature to become law.
Despite its overwhelming success, the bill also received bipartisan opposition.
Representative Jim Himes, a Democrat and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said he was not in favour of the potential ban that could result from the bill. Meanwhile, Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar told The Independent she was not convinced to vote yes even after a national security briefing.
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene also voted no, telling The Independent it could have unintended consequences for social media use.
Hello and welcome...
... to The Independent’s live coverage of the vote on a TikTok ban – which could begin the process of blocking it across the US.
Republicans will commit to vote – despite Trump’s concerns
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives vowed on Tuesday to forge ahead with a vote to ban the popular TikTok social media app, despite the concerns of Donald Trump, who holds great influence over their slim House majority.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is due to bring legislation to the floor on Wednesday that addresses Chinese ownership of TikTok, which Republicans and Democrats say poses a national security risk to the United States. The bill would give TikTok‘s Chinese owner, ByteDance, about six months to divest the video app used by 170 million Americans.
That is coming despite former president and Republican candidate Trump’s public comments in recent days opposing the bill, which he said could benefit Meta Platforms Inc’s Facebook and Instagram services.
“I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform last week.
So far this year, Trump opposition has led House Republicans to scuttle a bipartisan bill negotiated in the Senate meant to address record flows of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border and helped stymie a bipartisan Senate aid package to Ukraine.
The TikTok bill last week passed out of committee with a rare unanimous bipartisan 50-0 vote.
Representative Chip Roy, a prominent Republican hardliner and Trump ally who is co-sponsoring the bill, acknowledged the former president’s concerns about other social platforms but said the House needs to act anyway.
“It’s not weighing on my mind,” the Texas Republican told reporters. “He’re trying to be very careful about American-owned companies, and not have the power of government overstep, but to focus here on (the Chinese government) targeting our people.”
House members of both parties got a classified briefing about TikTok on Tuesday from the FBI, Justice Department and intelligence officials.
“We’ve answered a lot of questions from members. We had a classified briefing today so that members can see even more details about what’s at risk and how the CCP can jeopardize the risk to American families,” Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters.
Johnson and Scalise ignored questions about Trump’s concerns.
Lawmakers have also been deluged with calls from teenage TikTok users who oppose the legislation, which some said have eclipsed those seeking a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“A lot of them are calling, so it’s clogged up the people that want a ceasefire. They’ve overcome the ceasefire,” Democratic Representative Steve Cohen told reporters.
The company is also lobbying Congress against the bill, saying TikTok is not owned or controlled by the Chinese government and warning that divestiture could jeopardize the security of U.S. data.
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Trump continued to rail about Facebook but also acknowledged concerns about a national security risk.
“There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok,” Trump said.
Democratic President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign has embraced TikTok as a way to reach young voters, while the Trump campaign so far has avoided the platform.
But Biden has also said he would sign the legislation if it passes the House and Senate.
Republican Representative Ben Cline said he backs the bill, despite Trump’s opposition, saying, “Everybody’s got their opinion about it. He’s got a right to have his opinion.”
Trump opposes TikTok ban
Donald Trump, who had helped kickstart discussion of a ban on TikTok in the last days of his presidency, has indicated that he has reversed his stance.
In an interview earlier this week, he said that an outright ban would only help Facebook, which he said was an “enemy of the people”. And he expressed concern that “young kids” would go “crazy without it”.
You can read the full story here.
Will TikTok be banned today?
No, is the short answer. Not yet.
This just begins the process. It needs the Senate to approve the Bill and Joe Biden to sign it, first. And then it allows Bytedance six months to divest itself, which would avoid the ban entirely.
So today is just the beginning of a very long process.
Today’s vote has a ‘big obstacle'
The vote today has a high threshold to cross, says Eric Garcia, The Independent’s Washington bureau chief. It will happen under “Suspension of the Rules” – which means that two-thirds of the House will need to back it, rather than the usual majority.
“The House vote on legislation that would require TikTok’s parent company faces numerous hurdles. But perhaps the biggest obstacle it faces is the fact the vote will happen under a formerly obscure procedure called suspension of the rules,” he writes.
“Typically, the House votes on a rule before it votes on legislation. Rules votes determine the parameters of debate and how the vote will take place. But in recent months, House conservatives have revolted against Republican leadership by voting down the rule. As a result, the House has often voted to suspend the rule so the House can have a vote.”
Numbers show why a total block could be so devastating
TikTok has grown fast, and is now one of the most widely used and positively views apps available. That could make any possible ban difficult and controversial.
Robert F Kennedy opposes ban
Robert F Kennedy, who hopes to be president, has indicated that he will oppose the ban.
Lawmakers are now debating the bill – with impassioned arguments from both sides.
Opponents of TikTok say that it is dangerously close to the Chinese government, and that the app could be used to spy on American citizens.
Proponents say that despite the concerns about privacy and misinformation, it provides a useful tool to Americans, and that it is unfair to ban only TikTok.
AOC says bill is ‘rushed'
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that there are “serious antitrust and privacy questions”, but that the bill was rushed. She won’t be supporting it.
Lawmakers describe ban as a ‘band aid'
One of the common arguments by opponents of the new bill is that it is really just a superficial response to the bigger concerns: the Chinese government could still spread misinformation and gather data if it wanted to, they have noted.
They have also argued that it could do significant damage to the people who rely on it. And they say that there is a free speech concern in allowing any future president to ban apps.
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