House votes in favor of bill that could ban TikTok and sends it to the Senate

The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Saturday that could either ban TikTok in the country or force its sale. A revised version of the bill, which previously passed the House in March but then stalled in the Senate, has this time been attached to a foreign aid package, likely meaning it will now be treated as a higher priority item. The bill initially gave TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, six months to sell the app if passed, otherwise TikTok would be banned from U.S. app stores. Under the revised version, ByteDance would have up to a year to opt out.

The bill passed by a vote of 360 to 58 in the House, according to P.A.. The project will now be submitted to the Senate, which could vote on it in a few days. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said today that the Senate is working to reach an agreement on the date of the next vote on the foreign aid plan to which the TikTok bill is attached, but that it should take place next Tuesday. President Joe Biden has previously said he would support the bill if Congress passes it.

The bill presents TikTok as a national security threat because of its ties to China. There are around 170 million US users on the app, at least according to Tic Tac, and ByteDance shouldn’t let them go without a fight. In a press release published on X Earlier this week, the TikTok Policy account said such a law would “trample on the free speech rights” of these users, “devastate 7 million businesses, and shut down a platform that contributes to 24 million people each year.” billion dollars to the American economy. Critics of the bill also argued that banning TikTok would do little to protect Americans’ data.