The White House is urging the Senate to pass a bill that would force TikTok to separate from its Chinese parent company after legislation that could lead to a TikTok ban passed the House with overwhelming support.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday in Milwaukee, Wis., President Joe Biden said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the administration wants the Senate to move quickly.
Her remarks came after the House passed a bill Wednesday morning with bipartisan support 352 to 65, despite an avalanche of nonstop calls from TikTok users fighting the bill.
‘We are pleased to see this bill moving forward. We will look to the Senate to take swift action, Jean-Pierre said. “This bill is important, and we welcome the step in an ongoing effort to address the threat posed by certain technology services operating in the United States that put Americans’ personal information and our broader national security at risk.”
The White House argued that the bill would not ban apps like TikTok, but would ensure that ownership is not in the hands of those who would exploit them.
But some lawmakers, users and TikTok officials disagree about the actual consequences if the bill becomes law.
Now senators will decide whether the national security threat posed by TikTok is worth the headache of voters who love the app.
Lawmakers accused TikTok of providing its US user data to Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, which they say has ties to the Chinese Communist Party
TikTok sent this message to users on Tuesday morning, asking them to get in touch with their lawmakers to let them know if they support the TikTok law
The House China Select Committee says Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, through ByteDance, are using TikTok to spy on its American users’ locations and dictate its algorithm to conduct influence campaigns, making it a national security threat.
ByteDance would have five months after the law’s signing to divest TikTok. If it doesn’t, app stores and web hosting platforms won’t be allowed to distribute it in the US
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not committed to a vote, but said the Senate would review the bill once it comes over from the House.
On Friday, President Biden said he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk despite his own re-election campaign launching Biden’s TikTok account last month.
TikTok has around 170 million users in the US. Ahead of the vote, it urged users to pressure Congress not to pass the bill, which it argued would harm millions of content creators and businesses.
Gen Z Congressman Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., said Biden’s support for the bill could hurt him with young people, but more than that, he called it bad politics despite having his own privacy concerns.
Frost had an unlikely ally in former President Donald Trump, who reversed his own previous stance on banning TikTok and came out against the bill last week, arguing that a TikTok ban would only help Facebook.
“I don’t want Facebook that cheated in the last election to do better,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. ‘They are a true public enemy!’
Elon Musk joined Trump in opposing efforts to rein in TikTok’s influence, calling it government ‘censorship’ in a post on X on Tuesday.
‘This law isn’t just about TikTok, it’s about censorship and government control! If it was just about TikTok, it would only mention ‘foreign control’ as the problem, but it doesn’t,’ Musk said.
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk has come out against the TikTok bill, claiming it could be used as a form of government repression
While the bill passed the House with overwhelming support, there was also bipartisan opposition.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who voted against it, mentioned Musk by name, praised him for restoring her account on X after it was previously banned, and condemned the ‘Pandora’s Box’ this bill could open.
‘What’s to stop the US government from forcing the sale of another social media company that claims it protects US data from foreign adversaries?’
“I think this bill could cause future problems. It opens Pandora’s box and I am opposed to this bill, Greene said on the floor Wednesday.
“This is really about controlling Americans’ data, and if we cared about Americans’ data, we would stop the sale of Americans’ data universally, not just to China.”
Greene was among a number of prominent GOP members who voted against the bill, including Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Tom McClintock, R-Calif., Nancy Mace, RS.C., and more.
Across the aisle, ‘Squad’ members voted reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., also oppose the measure.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said the bill could be the equivalent of opening ‘Pandora’s Box’ and that the future consequences of the measure are unknown
Gen Z congressman Maxwell Frost said he was a ‘hell no’ vote on the TikTok bill ahead of a House vote that would force the app’s Chinese parent to divest or face a US ban
But the bill’s author, Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., pushed back Wednesday morning.
“TikTok is a threat to our national security because it is owned by ByteDance, which does the bidding of the Communist Party,” Gallagher said on the floor.
“This bill therefore forces TikTok to break with the Chinese Communist Party. This does not apply to American companies.’
Gallagher argued that his bill would only affect companies subject to the control of foreign adversaries.
TikTok pushed back against the ‘ban’ in a statement shared with DailyMail.com after Parliament passed the bill.
‘This process was secret and the bill was blocked for one reason: it is a ban. We hope the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses and the 170 million Americans who use our service.’
TikTok advocates rallied outside the Capitol ahead of Wednesday’s vote to push back against the bill
Some of the advocates who came to the Capitol on Wednesday were TikTok content creators
The CCP also pushed back against the passage of the bill.
“Although the US has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.
‘This kind of bullying behavior, which cannot win in fair competition, disrupts the normal business activity of companies, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment and harms the normal international economic and trade order.’
“In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,” Wang added.
TikTok sent this message to users last week after the bill was introduced
The White House’s support for the bill comes just weeks after the president’s own re-election campaign launched Biden’s TikTok account in February in an effort to reach young voters as the president prepares for a rematch with Trump in November.
While Biden maintains a lead over Trump among young voters according to recent polls, the gap has shrunk since young voters helped propel him to the White House in 2020.
The president has also faced backlash among young people over his support for funding Israel as it wages war in Gaza.