A House panel approved a bipartisan bill meant to force the divestment of TikTok by its China-based parent company, making it the furthest advanced effort yet to crack down on the social media platform over its massive influence over young people and possible ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously in favor of Rep. Mike Gallagher’s (R-WI) Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. The bill would make it unlawful for app stores to host social media applications owned by companies connected to “foreign adversaries,” such as China, Russia, or Iran, specifically focusing on TikTok and its parent company ByteDance. The bill now awaits a floor vote in the House.
“We have given TikTok a clear choice: Divest from your parent company, which is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party, and remain operational in the United States or side with the Chinese Communist Party and face a ban,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) said at a hearing.
The committee also voted in favor of Rep. Frank Pallone’s (D-NJ) Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act, which bars data brokers from selling U.S. user data to foreign adversaries.
TikTok initiated an enormous effort to get voters to call their congressional representatives and urge them to oppose Gallagher’s bill. Congressional staffers have reported that hundreds of users called their offices about the bill after the short-form video app posted notifications to users about how the app could face a “complete ban.”
Several of the callers were high schoolers or younger, according to congressional aides. Some appeared uncertain about the particulars of the ban, while others used crude names such as “Mr. Ben Dover,” according to aides. One caller allegedly threatened to commit suicide if TikTok was divested from ByteDance, according to the Spectator.
“TikTok will do anything they can — including manipulating and exploiting American users — in order to prevent CCP-controlled ByteDance from being banned from the U.S.,” Rodgers posted on X.
Gallagher has said his bill is not a ban but merely an attempt to sever TikTok parent company ByteDance’s influence from TikTok due to its connections to the CCP.
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Gallagher’s bill has support from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and from the White House, giving it a significant advantage over the several bills proposed in 2023 for banning TikTok. Some senators have expressed worries about the constitutionality of the bill.
TikTok did not respond to requests for comment from the Washington Examiner.
