A bipartisan group of US lawmakers have introduced a new bill into the US House of Representatives which would ban short-form video app TikTok, and any other apps owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, unless their US operations are divested from their parent company. The bill would also give the President powers to impose similar ultimatums on any other social media applications owned by a “foreign adversary” to the US.
Republican representative Mike Gallagher and Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi say that TikTok poses a national security risk, so long as it remains tied to a China-based business. “So long as it is owned by ByteDance and thus required to collaborate with the CCP, TikTok poses critical threats to our national security,” said Krishnamoorthi. “Our bipartisan legislation would protect American social media users by driving the divestment of foreign adversary-controlled apps to ensure that Americans are protected from the digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that could weaponise their personal data against them.”
The proposed legislation is co-led by 18 other Representatives, an equal split of Democrats and Republicans. It also has the support of President Biden, with a White House National Security spokesperson saying that Biden’s administration will work with Congress to put the bill “on the strongest possible legal footing”.
TikTok maintains that it doesn’t share any data with the Chinese government. A spokesperson said banning the app would “trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive five million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs”.
Backing on both sides of the aisle
TikTok has faced frequent legal scrutiny across the years in Western markets over national security concerns. Despite TikTok’s protestations, critics claim that any company based in China would realistically have no option but to hand over data to the Chinese government if asked. And given TikTok’s extensive access to personal data from its large user base across the West, this could pose a significant national security risk. There’s also a risk that the platform could be used to spread propaganda and misinformation, again if forced by the Chinese government.
The app was previously ordered to divest itself from ByteDance or face a US ban back in 2020 by former President Donald Trump. At the time this looked like it would go ahead – a deal involving Oracle and Walmart which would have spun TikTok off from ByteDance in the US was announced. But Trump’s legal authority for banning the app was questioned in court, TikTok missed multiple deadlines for its divestiture, and the deal was shelved once Biden came to power. The new President said he would review the risks posed by TikTok and other Chinese-owned apps.
But as the bipartisan backing of this new bill shows, there’s still political will on both sides of the aisle to force TikTok to separate from its parent company. And since the bill already has the President’s backing too, there’s a good chance of it passing.
An interesting provision within the bill states that any applications which the law applies to would have to provide users with a copy of their data in a format that can be imported into an alternative media application. In other words, TikTok would not only face a ban, but would have to empower its users to essentially shift their TikTok profiles over to a competitor, like YouTube’s Shorts or Meta’s Reels.
This provision may be designed to counter accusations that the bill would compromise free speech or harm businesses, making it easier for creators and audiences to move across to another platform. But it would also increase the risk to TikTok of delaying its divesture – even a short, temporary ban could hand a big advantage to TikTok’s competitors.
