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TikTok spent days directing its users to call their Members of Congress but that effort seems to have failed, at least so far. Today a bill that would force the Chinese owner of TikTok to either sell it or face a ban in the US passed the House with strong bipartisan support.
Republican leaders fast-tracked the bill through the House with limited debate, and it passed on a lopsided vote of 352-65, reflecting widespread backing for legislation that would take direct aim at China in an election year.
The action came despite TikTok’s efforts to mobilize its 170 million U.S. users against the measure, and amid the Biden administration’s push to persuade lawmakers that Chinese ownership of the platform poses grave national security risks to the United States…
Representative Mike Gallagher, the Wisconsin Republican who is among the lawmakers leading the bill, said on the floor before the vote that it “forces TikTok to break up with the Chinese Communist Party.”
“This is a common-sense measure to protect our national security,” he said.
President Biden has said he would sign the bill so the only hurdle left is the Senate. And it sounds like that is going to be a long, slow process. Sen. Schumer hasn’t committed to bring the bill up for a vote at all.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was noncommittal on whether the Senate would vote on the House bill, telling reporters on Tuesday, “I’ll have to consult, and intend to consult, with my relevant committee chairmen to see what their views would be.”…
Another key chair, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who leads the Senate Commerce Committee, said, “I’m not sure what we’ll do yet, got to talk to lots of people.”
“The whole point here is you have a dilemma,” Cantwell said. “You want free speech, but you also want the United States to have some ability to protect US citizens or U.S. military from foreign actors who might be deleterious in what they would be using as a tool of communication…
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill, the Judiciary Committee chair, acknowledged that a ban on TikTok may not be politically beneficial for President Joe Biden’s re-election in November…
“Cutting out a large group of young voters is not the best-known strategy for reelection,” Durbin said.
