Biden says he would sign TikTok ban

Washington
CNN
—
House lawmakers are moving with dizzying speed with a plan that could ban TikTok from the United States. In the span of two days this week, a key House committee introduced and approved a bill targeting TikTok. The full House is set to vote on it as early as next week, and the White House says President Joe Biden is prepared to sign it.

But could a TikTok ban really happen? And what makes this proposal different from the other times policymakers have tried to clamp down on the video-sharing app used by 170 million Americans?

Here’s everything you need to know about the hot-button legislation.

What would the bill do?
If enacted, the bill would give TikTok roughly five months to separate from its China-linked parent company, ByteDance, or else app stores in the United States would be prohibited from hosting the app on their platforms.

It doesn’t stop there. The bill lays out similar restrictions for any app allegedly controlled by foreign adversaries, such as China, Iran, Russia or North Korea. And it sets up a process for Biden — or any future president — to identify apps that should be banned under the legislation.

App stores that violate the legislation could be fined based on the number of users of a banned app. The bill establishes fines of $5,000 per user of a banned app. So in the case of TikTok, Apple and Google could potentially be on the hook for up to $850 billion in fines each.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously to advance the bill on Thursday.

What is TikTok saying?
TikTok is calling the legislation an attack on the First Amendment rights of its users. It launched a call-to-action campaign within its app, urging users to call their representatives in Washington to oppose the bill. Multiple congressional offices say they’ve been flooded with calls.

“The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression,” TikTok said in a statement. “This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”

Why are lawmakers cracking down on TikTok?
They allege TikTok poses a national security threat because the Chinese government could use its intelligence laws against ByteDance, forcing it to hand over the data of US TikTok users. Policymakers worry that that information could then be used to identify intelligence targets or enable disinformation or propaganda campaigns.

So far, the US government has not publicly presented any evidence that China has accessed TikTok user data, and cybersecurity experts say it remains a hypothetical — albeit seriously troubling — scenario.

Didn’t President Donald Trump try to do this once? What’s he saying now?
Yes. While in office, Trump used a series of executive orders to try to force ByteDance to sell TikTok, and to bar app stores from hosting the platform. Those efforts stalled amid legal challenges, but Trump played a key role in making TikTok an issue in the first place, linking it to a broader anti-China agenda that included a trade war and incendiary rhetoric that’s raised fears of anti-Asian hate.

Curiously, however, Trump this week came out against a TikTok ban, saying in a post on Truth Social that it would only empower Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whom he described as “a true Enemy of the People!”

It’s not clear why Trump abruptly reversed his stance on TikTok. Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president, who will likely take on Biden in this November’s election.

So what makes this time different?
First, we’re talking about congressional legislation, not executive action. That’s an important difference. During the Trump administration, some debated whether the president has authority to ban a foreign-owned social media app. This bill would instead create clear, all-new authorities for the president to do exactly that.

Second, Trump’s efforts to ban TikTok ran into serious First Amendment objections at the time. The lawmakers behind this week’s bill say they have worked hard to iron out those concerns.

Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher, one of the bill’s lead cosponsors, says the bill does not ban TikTok; it simply offers TikTok the choice to be divested, with the consequence of a ban if it doesn’t comply. Gallagher says he and others have worked on the bill for the past six months, consulting with officials from the White House and across Washington to ensure it can withstand a legal challenge.

Lawmakers and their staff say that the lobbying campaign has actually worsened the concerns they have about the app and its parent company ByteDance, and strengthened their resolve to pass the legislation.

The bill, introduced by a bipartisan group of 20 lawmakers, would mandate that ByteDance sell TikTok within six months, or TikTok would be removed from mobile app stores in the US.

The legislation is sailing through Congress, winning rare unanimous approval from a key committee, and the full House is expected to vote on it on Wednesday. President Joe Biden has said that he will sign it into law if it reaches his desk.

Its swift advance has drawn a frantic last-minute push by TikTok to mobilise users directly against those responsible for the legislation.

TikTok confirmed to the BBC it had sent a notification urging TikTokers to "call your representative now" to urge them to vote against the measure. Users said that the app gave them a direct link for calling the representatives for their districts.