US House Passes Bill Potentially Banning TikTok Nationwide

In a landslide vote a bill has been passed by the US House of Representatives which gives ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, 165 days to divest from the social media platform before it is legally barred from app stores in the US.

A bill was passed today (Wednesday, March 13) by the US House of Representatives that would require Tiktok’s owner, ByteDance, to sell the video-creating social media platform or be hit with a complete ban in the US.

The vote was extremely one-sides, with 352 Congress members voting in favor and just 65 against. The bill was fast-tracked to a vote following unanimous approval by a committee last week, with the result that China-based ByteDance now has 165 days to divest from TikTok. If it decides not to, app stores including Apple App store and Google Play will be legally barred from hosting TikTok or providing web hosting services to ByteDance-operated applications.

Speaking at a news conference, Hakeem Jeffries, the House of Representatives minority leader, said the bill passed in a “bipartisan and decisive fashion” – which is an uncommon thing to happen in the heavily partisan House.

Members of the House appear to have supported this point, made by Jeffries, after clarifying that the bill wasn’t a total ban on TikTok, “It’s simply a divestiture of TikTok so that this social media platform can be owned by an American company that would protect the data and the privacy of the American consumer from malignant foreign interests like the Chinese Communist Party,” Jeffries said.

Why has the TikTok-Related Bill Been Passed in the US?

The bill passed by the House is the most concrete threat to TikTok amid political concerns around allegations that the China-based company may be collecting sensitive user data and politically censor content. TikTok has repeatedly claimed it has not and would not share US consumer data with the Chinese government.

Despite its repudiations, TikTok faced an attempted ban by Donald Trump in 2020 and a state-level ban passed in Montana in 2023. Courts blocked both of those ban attempts on the grounds of first amendment breeches, and Trump has now reversed his position, being against a TikTok ban.

China never abuses restrictions against any specific country or business. Foreign companies are welcomed to the Chinese market with their products and services, as long as they observe Chinese laws and provisions. pic.twitter.com/NXKCGubj7L

— Spokesperson发言人办公室 (@MFA_China) March 13, 2024

China’s foreign ministry has posted a series of statement on X which seem to be in response to the US House vote. Featuring a picture of foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, one post says “China never abuses restrictions against any specific country or business. Foreign companies are welcome to the Chinese market with their products and services, as long as they observe Chinese laws and provisions.”

Whoever becomes the US President, we hope the US will follow the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, and work with China in the same direction for the steady, sound and sustainable growth of China-US relations. pic.twitter.com/tMi8t9wDl8

— Spokesperson发言人办公室 (@MFA_China) March 13, 2024

This is followed by a post that reads “Whoever becomes the US president, we hope the US will follow the principles of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, and work with China in the same direction for the steady, sound and sustainable growth of China-US relations.”