CLOCK TICKING ON TIKTOK
House passes ban, fate in Senate uncertain
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday that could end the use of TikTok in the United States.
The measure advanced with ease, gaining bipartisan support, 352 — 65, after lawmakers expressed concerns that the data being collected on TikTok will end up in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.
“As a member of the Select Committee on China, I have attended classified briefings and hearings on TikTok and the threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party’s information operations. I have grave concerns about our foreign adversaries being able to tell our kids what to watch online. I do not want to ban TikTok, but I want to ensure that it is no longer controlled, even indirectly, by the Chinese Communist Party. This bill does so in a responsible way,” U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, one of the bill’s cosponsors, told the Herald.
“Today’s overwhelmingly bipartisan vote shows how important this is for Americans, and the Senate should take up this bill soon,” the Salem Democrat continued.
Moulton’s colleague from Newton said he’s concerned about the risk the app poses for young users.
“Social media corporations profit by keeping our kids hooked on their screens. Families are fed up. The forced sale of TikTok is the first step in ensuring Big Tech answers to Congress on mental health,” U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, another cosponsor, said in a statement.
Not every Massachusetts Representative was on board, and in total 30 Democrats and half as many Republicans voted to block the bill’s passage.
“We must take immediate action to enact greater oversight over big tech and social media companies including TikTok, but the bill voted on in the House was the wrong approach,” Boston’s U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley said in a statement.
U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern said he voted to stop the bill because of the rushed process that led to the vote and the impact it will have on small business.
The bill — the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — would give Chinese-owned ByteDance 165 days to divest their interest in the social media company or face removal from U.S. app stores. The short-form video hosting service is especially popular with young social media consumers and currently boasts more than 170 million U.S. users.
Christo Wilson, a social media expert and a dean at Khoury College of Computer Science at Northeastern University, said lawmakers were concerned by CCP’s ability to demand data from firms based in mainland China and the government’s ability to moderate content, especially content that is unfavorable to the ruling party. That being said, TikTok didn’t invent the data problem.
“It is true that the Tiktok app collects a lot of data. However, TikTok is no worse in this regard than other apps from major tech companies, or social media apps in particular,” he told the Herald.
The bill’s fate in the U.S. Senate is uncertain. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that the Senate will examine the bill thoroughly before bringing it up for a vote. U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, of Virginia, said that he and his colleagues on the Intelligence Committee will move to quickly pass the bill.
TikTok, which maintains they have never shared user data with the Chinese government, said that they hope the Senate remembers the app’s users, some of whom are small businesses using it to generate an income.