In August 2020, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring TikTok’s parent company to either sell the app within 45 days or cease its operations in the U.S. “ByteDance, its subsidiaries, affiliates, and Chinese shareholders, shall divest all interests and rights,” Trump’s press secretary wrote at the time.
Before long, the Trump administration saw the order stalled in court, and his successor rescinded it.
Now, Congress is advancing a bill to nudge the Chinese company ByteDance Ltd. into selling TikTok… and Trump is against it.
Trump described the bill as anti-competitive, and he encouraged Congress to redirect their energies to Facebook.
“If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Trump posted on Truth Social, referring to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “I don’t want Facebook, who cheated in the last Election, doing better. They are a true Enemy of the People!”
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., described the bill as an effort to nudge a sale, not an effort to “get rid of TikTok.” Gallagher chairs the House Select Committee on Competition with the Chinese Communist Party, the committee responsible for the new bill.
Critics of TikTok have credited the video-sharing app with data collection beyond Facebook’s wildest dreams. One ex-engineer shared research reportedly showing TikTok’s ability to track users’ keystrokes inside the app.
Plus, some lawmakers worry about Beijing’s ability to strongarm TikTok into sharing data from its American users. TikTok has never been shown to be sharing data with Beijing. TikTok says it has never done that and wouldn’t do so even if asked.
The new bill — called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act — requires TikTok’s parent company to either sell TikTok or cease its U.S. operations within 180 days. As an enforcement mechanism, it threatens to fine internet providers $500 per user, and it introduces a $5,000 fine for other offenses.
Plus, the 12-page bill creates a procedure for allowing the president to force a sale of other, future applications controlled by foreign adversaries. As always, the bill acknowledges the judiciary’s role in reviewing the president’s actions.
The bill advanced out of committee by a unanimous, bipartisan vote of 50-0.
House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to hold a vote on it.
“It’s an important, bipartisan measure to take on China, our largest geopolitical foe, which is actively undermining our economy and security,” Johnson said Thursday.
President Joe Biden’s White House remains open to signing some version of the bill, even as his campaign hosts a TikTok account. “once it gets to a place where we think, to your point, it’s on legal standing and it’s in a place where it can get out of Congress, then the President would sign it. But it needs — we need to continue to work on it, obviously,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday.
TikTok representatives have raised First Amendment concerns about forcing the sale of a platform. TikTok made a similar argument about the 2020 order.
“This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it. This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs,” the company said in a prepared statement.
Regarding the fast-moving bill, TikTok sent a panicked notification to its users. The app urged users to “speak up now — before your government strips 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression.”
In the notification, TikTok also claimed that the “ban” would damage millions of businesses and destroy the lives of countless creators around the country.
Take a look at Trump’s remarks on the bill —