What you need to know
- The House passed a bill that could lead to TikTok being sold to a US company or banned in the country if ByteDance doesn't comply.
- The TikTok ban is part of a larger bill addressing sanctions on countries like Russia and providing aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Gaza.
- Bundling the TikTok bill with a foreign aid package in the House makes it a higher priority and potentially harder for the Senate to delay.
The US House of Representatives passed a bill that might lead to TikTok getting the boot in the country unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sells the app to a US company.
On Saturday, the House voted 360-58 to push forward a bill that brings the possibility of banning TikTok in the US closer to reality, CBS reports. This bill had previously cleared the House in March but hit a roadblock in the Senate.
This time, the House bundled up a revamped version of the bill with a foreign aid package, which suggests it's now a bigger deal and could be tougher for the Senate to delay.
The TikTok ban is just one piece of a bigger bill dealing with sanctions on countries like Russia. It's tagged along with a bunch of other measures aimed at providing military support to Ukraine and Israel, plus humanitarian aid to Gaza.
TikTok previously said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the bill infringes on free speech rights and would harm businesses and the US economy.
It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform…April 18, 2024
Since these funds are urgently needed, bundling TikTok with them means the Senate has to give it a quicker look than if it were on its own. In the earlier version, ByteDance had only six months to find a new owner. But after some back-and-forth talks, a compromise was reached, and now the revised bill heads to the Senate.
If it becomes law, ByteDance has a whole year to find a buyer. And you can bet the company will probably fight it in court, claiming it infringes on the First Amendment rights of TikTok's millions of users.
The push for this ban comes from both sides of the aisle in Congress, worrying about TikTok's ties to China. Some legislators are scared China might use the app to push propaganda to the US crowd. Plus, there's a lot of fretting about the heaps of data TikTok is scooping up on millions of American users.
However, critics of the bill have pointed out that banning TikTok might not do much to safeguard Americans' data after all.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer mentioned that the Senate is hashing out the details for the next vote on the foreign aid package that includes the TikTok bill. President Joe Biden has already stated he's on board with the bill if Congress gives it the green light.
