WASHINGTON (CN) — As the House readies to vote this week on a bill that would launch social media giant TikTok into an existential crisis, some worry that lawmakers may have bitten off more than they can chew.
On Wednesday, the lower chamber is set to consider Republican Wisconsin Representative Mike Gallagher’s measure that, if made law, would require TikTok to divest from ByteDance — the platform’s China-based parent company, which the bill designates as operated by a “foreign adversary.”
If TikTok refuses to divest, it will be banned in the U.S., the legislation says.
The measure’s language doesn’t just apply to TikTok, but to any company with ties to countries that Congress considers to be foreign adversaries. The bill also gives the president authority to decide what companies fit that description and determine when a firm has appropriately divested from a foreign-controlled entity.
The proposed bill enjoys overwhelming bipartisan support from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who fear that TikTok is forking over American user data to the Chinese government. In an exceedingly rare unanimous decision, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce last week voted 50-0 to advance the measure.
Lawmakers have already tried on more than one occasion to send TikTok to the recycling bin. The House just last year undertook an effort to outright ban TikTok. That effort fizzled before it could reach a floor vote.
Former President Trump in 2020 signed an executive order barring U.S. companies from doing business with ByteDance. Trump has since reversed course on banning TikTok and has urged Republicans to oppose Gallagher’s measure.
Now, however, the political winds appear to have shifted. That's thanks in part to warnings from the intelligence community, which lawmakers have said suggest TikTok poses an imminent national security threat.
Speaking at last week’s Energy and Commerce Committee business meeting, panel chair Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington state Republican, said that classified information provided to lawmakers demonstrate that foreign countries are “determined to exploit and weaponize Americans’ data” through apps such as TikTok.
Exact details have been scarce on the purported national security threat posed by the wildly popular social-media platform. Still, that information appears to have been convincing to many lawmakers.
Speaking to reporters after a classified briefing on the issue Tuesday, Republican Texas Representative Chip Roy said that the proposed legislation “threads the needle nicely,” addressing what he saw as a national-security need while not handing too much power to the government.
“This is designed to be a framework that will allow us to ensure that we don’t have the Chinese Communist Party owning American data and using it against the American people,” he said.
For some experts, reframing the TikTok debate to center on national security is the final result of lawmakers searching for a politically viable path forward to regulate the platform.
“Last year, this was much more about the mental health of our youth,” said Sarah Kreps, a professor at Cornell University who specializes in technology policy and national security. “Yes, there was a Chinese government element of that concern — but now it’s a national security threat.”
Kreps contended that shifting the policy focus onto national security gives lawmakers momentum. Still, the classified nature of national security information also shields debate on the issue from public scrutiny.
“There are national security reasons that some things have to be kept behind closed doors,” she said, “but at the same time, the public does not have any evidence that it can adjudicate.”
A national security focus also gives Congress an avenue to sidestep the First Amendment concerns that would inevitably come with banning a social media platform in the U.S., Kreps said.
Follow @BenjaminSWeiss
