The House passed a bill on Wednesday that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to either sell the popular app or risk a ban in the United States.
President Biden has stated that he is prepared to sign the ban into law, but the bill faces opposition in the Senate, spurred by the app’s users, who will vote in November.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican and co-sponsor of the bill, stated that Congress must assure TikTok’s survival as a corporation for either Americans or the Chinese Communist Party, but not both.
“The Chinese Communist Party does not have a First Amendment right to conduct malign influence operations in the United States,” Gallagher said in a video on X. “We need to cut out the Chinese Communist Party tumor from TikTok.”
A bipartisan group of senators drafted the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would prohibit app shops and hosting providers from making foreign-adversary-controlled programs available online.
The measure does not outright ban TikTok, but it does threaten a blockade if ByteDance does not divest.
Lawmakers have claimed numerous reasons for wanting to cut TikTok’s relations with China, including fears about data theft, espionage, and foreign