TikTok is in the hot seat again in Washington

TikTok is in the hot seat again in Washington

TikTok is once again facing threats from Congress.

On Wednesday, House Republicans added a hot-button bill that could lead to a nationwide ban on TikTok to a sweeping foreign aid package aimed at helping Israel and Ukraine.

House Speaker Mike Johnson aims to hold a vote on the aid package as early as Saturday. If approved, it could fast-track what would be the most serious risk to TikTok’s US business since former President Donald Trump first proposed banning the popular app in 2020.

An early version of the TikTok bill was navigated by the House in March, but it has been deadlocked in the Senate. By including it in the aid package, House Republicans hope to force the Senate to vote quickly on measures that supporters say are necessary to protect Americans’ personal data from the Chinese government.

Opponents, including TikTok and various civil society groups, argue the bill risks violating the First Amendment rights of TikTok users.

In pressuring Senate colleagues to pass the TikTok bill along with military equipment for Ukraine, House Republicans sought to avoid a lengthy standing process that could delay a Senate vote on the app, which has 175 million US users. President Joe Biden said he would sign the House TikTok bill if it reached his desk.

The latest version of the TikTok bill contains several updates. For example, it set a nine-month deadline for the app’s Chinese parent, ByteDance, to sell the social media company. If it misses the deadline, TikTok will be banned from US app stores.

The proposed time limit is longer than the approximately six months proposed in the previous law. The new bill would also give the president the option to extend the deadline by another 90 days if he determines there is progress toward a sale.

The change appeared to be aimed at addressing concerns from some senators that the original six-month deadline was too short. Whether the revisions are sufficient to secure Senate approval, however, remains unclear, as several prominent senators have signaled a desire for a slower approach to the TikTok bill.

A key senator who was skeptical of the initial House TikTok bill appears satisfied.

“I am very pleased that Speaker Johnson and House leaders have agreed to my recommendation to extend the ByteDance divestiture period from six months to a year,” Washington Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement. “As I said, extending the disposal period is necessary to ensure that there is enough time for the new buyer to settle the matter. I support this updated law.”

For years, US policymakers have expressed concern that TikTok’s links to China through its parent company could allow the Chinese government to access the data of US TikTok users without permission. The information could potentially help the Chinese government identify intelligence targets or facilitate disinformation campaigns, they said. Some other countries like India have already banned TikTok.

TikTok has strongly denied the allegations, saying there is no evidence the Chinese government has accessed US user data so far and that the company has taken steps to protect Americans’ personal information. That includes Project Texas, an initiative that involves transferring the data of US TikTok users to servers controlled and overseen by Oracle, the US tech giant.

Some policy experts say a more comprehensive way to address TikTok’s potential national security risks is for Congress to pass a national privacy law that regulates how all businesses and organizations can handle Americans’ personal information.

This month, Cantwell and his Republican counterpart in the House, Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, unveiled a proposal that could do just that, breaking years of deadlock over key issues including the scope and reach of a unified national data privacy standard.