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The House passed the sell-or-be-banned bill for the app (360-58) on Saturday, April 20 as part of a larger foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, giving Chinese TikTok owner ByteDance up to a year to sell the app. Otherwise, TikTok will be subject to a nationwide ban.
According to Politico, the bill is expected to pass the Senate as it's considered "priority legislation" for Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
A previous, standalone bill was passed by the House in March over national security concerns. That one gave ByteDance a shorter selling deadline of six months. That bill stalled in the Senate due to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) arguing that a longer selling period was necessary.
Cantwell got her wish: The newer bill passed this weekend gives ByteDance a 9-month selling period and an additional three-month extension if a sale is in the works.
Alex Haurek, a spokesman for TikTok, said in a statement published by CBS News that it is "unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually."
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray has warned that the app poses a concern to national security. In 2022, Wray told lawmakers that the Chinese government could use the app to control data collection on millions of users, or control the recommendation algorithm, which could be used for influence operations.
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