China select committee in Congress launches bill to force ByteDance to sell its share in TikTok or be banned in the US

Leaders on the China select committee are pushing a bipartisan bill that would force state-affiliated ByteDance to sell its shares of TikTok or else the popular video-sharing platform would be banned. 

Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and top Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Calif., introduced the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would specifically designate ByteDance and TikTok as foreign adversary-controlled applications. 

The bill also would broaden the scope of the president’s powers to ban other foreign adversary-controlled applications, calling out those affiliated with China, Russia, North Korea and Iran.

ByteDance would have more than five months after the law was signed to divest from TikTok. If it did not, app stores and web hosting platforms would not be allowed to distribute it in the U.S.

Leaders on the China select committee are pushing a bipartisan bill that would force state-affiliated ByteDance to sell its shares of TikTok or else the popular video-sharing platform would be banned

The bill has at least seventeen co-sponsors from both parties, offering it a decent shot of becoming law if it comes up for a vote. 

It will be marked up by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday in a sign of swift action for the legislation. 

Still, banning a widely popular social media platform in an election year could prove to be difficult. TikTok has around 103 million users in the US, nearly a third of the population. 

‘This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,’ said Gallagher in a statement.

‘America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States. TikTok’s time in the United States is over unless it ends its relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance.’ 

Krishnamoorthi said in his own statement: ‘So long as it is owned by ByteDance and thus required to collaborate with the CCP, TikTok poses critical threats to our national security.’

Last year a group of Republicans launched a bill that would outright ban TikTok, but Democrats said the effort was rushed and would infringe on free speech rights. 

Senators have introduced their own bills to ban or curb the platform, but none have gained enough traction to come up for a vote. 

Congress already passed legislation to ban TikTok on government phones.

But last month, Biden’s re-election campaign joined TikTok.

Last year the White House backed legislation put forth by Intel Committee Chair Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and more than two dozen other senators that would have given the administration the power to ban foreign-based technologies if they pose national security threats. 

In 2020 former President Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok but that move was held up by courts.