On Tuesday, the Senate passed a massive foreign aid package that included Ultimatum for TikTok: Divest or be banned from operating in the US. Package has been received passed by the House of Representatives on Saturdayand President Joe Biden signaled last month that he was prepared to sign the bill.
“Even as our social media platforms fumble their response to foreign influence operations,” Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said before the vote. , there was never any concern that these platforms were operating at the direction of foreign adversaries.” on Tuesday. “I can't say the same for TikTok.”
For more than four years, Congress has threatened to ban TikTok, citing potential risks to national security. Last month, the House passed a separate divestment bill, but the measure stalled in the Senate after lawmakers like Sen. Maria Cantwell argued to give TikTok six months to find a new owner is too little time. The new bill extends the deadline by six months, giving TikTok a year to sell.
“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of foreign aid and critical humanitarian assistance to once again block a bill that would prohibit trampling on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans,” TikTok said in a statement. statement immediately after Saturday's vote. The company did not immediately respond to the Senate vote on Tuesday.
Efforts to ban TikTok have become politically challenging, especially when more politicians join the platform to campaign in the 2024 election. For years, Biden's administration and campaign avoided creating their own accounts on the app, Choose to build a network of influencers to fill the void. But in February, Biden's re-election campaign has joined TikTok. March, Biden told reporters that he would sign the bill.
Reacting to this revived divestment effort, former president Donald Trump blamed Biden for the attacks on the app. “Tell everyone, especially the young people, dishonest Joe Biden is responsible for banning TikTok,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday. “He was the one who pushed for it to shut down and did it to help his friends at Facebook become richer and more dominant, and be able to continue fighting, perhaps illegally, Republican Party.”
The Trump administration was the first to pursue TikTok. In 2020, Trump signed a series of executive orders banning apps like TikTok, Alipay and WeChat. Court challenges have prevented these orders from taking effect. Last year, Montana lawmakers voted to ban the appbut one federal judge blocked the law from taking effect, saying it “could violate the First Amendment.” After the bill passed the House of Representatives on Saturday, the company's head of public policy, Michael Beckerman, told staff in an email that if the bill is signed into law, “we will move to court for a legal challenge.”
Many lawmakers have cited national security and data privacy concerns as their primary motivation for supporting the bill.
“Congress did not act to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company,” Democratic senator Maria Cantwell, said in a speech Tuesday. “Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, and malign activities that harm vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and government employees. Our America.”
“Congress could pass comprehensive consumer privacy legislation, which, in my opinion, would take more meaningful steps,” said Kate Ruane, director of the Center for Liberal Democracy and Technology. to address many of the data privacy concerns that have been raised about TikTok.” Project. “And I don't think there is currently any public evidence that any extremely serious and immediate harm exists.”
