Is TikTok Shutting Down? Updates on Congress’ Ban

In a bipartisan effort aimed at addressing TikTok’s ownership, the House passed a bill on Wednesday that critics say could lead to a national ban of the popular social media platform.

Last week, members of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party introduced the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

The bill, which passed in a full House vote of 352 to 65, would “incentivize divestment of TikTok” by excluding it from mobile app stores in the United States and establish executive branch powers to similarly target social media companies controlled by a “foreign adversary.”

Only 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans voted against the bill.

“That’s a very, very big yes vote,” Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday.

There have been national security concerns about TikTok, with U.S. lawmakers and the White House worried that data from American users could get into China’s hands. There is already a federal law banning TikTok on government devices.

If the bill passes in the Senate and is signed into law by President Joe Biden, ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, will have six months to sell its company to a buyer approved by the U.S. government. If ByteDance does not sell TikTok in that time, it will be illegal for app stores and web hosting companies to distribute or update the app in the U.S.

It’s unclear if ByteDance, in the event that it does comply with the U.S. government’s demands, would sell the entirety of TikTok or just its U.S. operation.

TikTok has said that the act would amount to a “total ban” of the app in the U.S., and urged its users last week to call members of Congress to complain about the bill and “tell them to vote NO.” In the pop-up message, TikTok said that the U.S. government is trying to take away Americans’ “Constitutional right to free expression.”

Former President Donald Trump, who is the presumptive GOP nominee in the 2024 presidential election, seemed to change his tune on a TikTok ban that he advocated for during his presidency, writing on Truth Social last week: “If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business. I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”

Despite Trump appearing to have a strong hold on the GOP, the bill passed with overwhelming support from House Republicans. Meanwhile, last Friday, Biden endorsed the bill, telling reporters, “If they pass it, I’ll sign it.” However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, has yet to commit to putting the bill to a vote in the upper chamber.

It is important to note that selling TikTok is easier said than done. The app has 170 million users, so it will sell at a very hefty price point. Big tech companies like Microsoft, Google and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, may be able to buy TikTok, but the Biden administration has attempted to stop the tech giants from expanding under antitrust laws.

China could also get in the way of ByteDance selling TikTok. In March 2023, a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokeswoman said the country would “firmly oppose” the sale of TikTok.