House passes bill that could lead to US ban of TikTok

The House passed a bill Wednesday that could ban the video-based social media app TikTok, but the legislation's fate is less than clear in the US Senate, where there is no companion bill.

A bill needs to pass in both the House and the Senate before it would be sent to the president to be signed into law.

The Democratic chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell, has made no firm commitment to advance the proposal.

“I will be talking to my Senate and House colleagues to try to find a path forward that is constitutional and protects civil liberties,” Cantwell said in a statement to CNN last week.

And on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wouldn’t commit to holding a vote on the House bill.

Some background on attempts to limit the app: Last year, Senate lawmakers proposed legislation clamping down on TikTok but triggered concerns that it could give the executive branch too much power.

Efforts to ban TikTok date back to the Trump administration, which used a series of executive orders to try to force app stores not to offer TikTok and to compel ByteDance to spin off the company.

Those efforts also stalled amid legal challenges, though it led TikTok to engage in negotiations with the US government about how it could secure Americans’ personal data. Those talks are ongoing, even as TikTok has moved to store US user data on US-based servers controlled by the tech giant Oracle.

Lawmakers who support Wednesday's bill say China's intelligence laws could allow it to force ByteDance — TikTok's parent company — to hand over TikTok's user data. That data could allegedly be useful to China for identifying intelligence targets or engaging in disinformation campaigns.

That characterization of China's intelligence laws is broadly accurate, according to cybersecurity and China experts.

But, they add, the allegations about TikTok as a national security risk remain a hypothetical. The US government has not publicly detailed any specific claim that China has actually accessed TikTok user data.

Voting is underway on the House's bill that could ban the video-based social media app TikTok.

The ban would pose a major challenge to one of the world’s most popular social media apps used by 170 million Americans, unless it parts ways with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

If successful, TikTok would have about five months to separate from ByteDance, or app stores across the US would be banned from hosting it on their platforms.

The vote is happening under an expedited process that requires a two-thirds majority for passage, which means it is likely to pass with widespread bipartisan support.

It’s not yet clear what the fate of the measure will be in the Senate. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill if it makes it to his desk.

We'll bring you the latest updates on the vote as we get them here.

CNN's Clare Foran, Haley Talbot and Kristin Wilson contributed reporting to this post.

Even as House lawmakers debate a broader TikTok ban, the federal government and more than half of US states have already clamped down on the app on official devices.

A CNN analysis last year found that 33 states had taken action to restrict the app on government-owned electronics.

Government agencies are viewed as having more leeway to regulate devices under their direct control. But imposing restrictions on private citizens can raise First Amendment concerns.

Summer Lucille, a content creator with over 1.4 million followers on her @JuicyBodyGoddess TikTok account, said how lawmakers vote for the bill that could ban TikTok in the US would directly influence who she casts her ballot for in November.

The bill would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform — used by roughly 170 million Americans — is spun off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

It would give ByteDance roughly five months to sell TikTok. If not divested by that time, it would be illegal for app store operators such as Apple and Google to make it available for download.

Lucille said the social media platform "changed my life forever" and has attracted people from all over the US to visit her brick-and-mortar store.

When asked how her business would change if TikTok were owned by an American entity instead of a Chinese company, Lucille responded:

She said she doesn't have any concerns about possible Chinese government influence.

A floor debate over the TikTok legislation has now begun, marking a prelude to the eventual House vote expected at 10 a.m. ET.

Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, a lead co-sponsor of the bill and the ranking member of a House select committee on China, urged his colleagues to support the legislation.

Some lawmakers are announcing their position on the bill through videos posted on TikTok, meanwhile.

California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, published a video of a prior television appearance in which he advocated for a national data privacy law that would govern not just TikTok but all tech platforms.

"I will be voting NO on the bill to ban TikTok," the caption on the video said.

New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman posted a TikTok video recorded from the halls of Congress and directly addressing the app's users.

"My colleagues are trying to ban TikTok, which is crazy," Bowman said in the video. "They're doing it because of your pressure, because of your organizing, because of your good work."

US intelligence officials cannot rule out the possibility that the Chinese government will use TikTok to influence the 2024 US elections, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers on Tuesday. 

Haines’ comments — in response to a question from a lawmaker during a House Intelligence Committee hearing — comes as US intelligence agencies raised concerns about the reported use of the TikTok in the 2022 US midterm elections in their Annual Threat Assessment report published on Monday. 

Tuesday’s testimony before the House panel by senior US intelligence officials came ahead of a high-stakes vote on Wednesday when the Republican-controlled House is slated to consider a bill that would force TikTok to divest from Chinese parent firm ByteDance or face a nationwide ban. 

 US national security officials are preparing for a divisive 2024 US election in which multiple foreign adversaries — from China to Russia to Iran — could try to use social media platforms to interfere with or influence the vote.  

Former President Donald Trump has sent mixed messages about his stance on a potential TikTok ban.

When president, he supported calls to ban the app — but appears to have backed away from that stance.

In a post on Truth Social last week, Trump expressed opposition to a ban, arguing that if TikTok were out of the picture, Facebook would benefit. He said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was an “Enemy of the People.”

In a Monday interview with CNBC, Trump said it was a “tough decision” whether to ban TikTok and argued that getting rid of it would benefit Meta, adding that he thought “Facebook has been very bad for our country.”

Trump said he thought TikTok posed a national security threat to the US but added, “You have that problem with Facebook and lots of other companies too.”

China said Wednesday that banning TikTok would backfire on the US.

The comments by China’s foreign ministry came hours before a House vote on legislation that would force Tiktok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the short video platform or face being banned in the US, where it boasts over 170 million users.

Lawmakers who want to see the bill passed argue it poses a national security threat because China could use its intelligence laws against ByteDance and force it to hand over US user data.

Wang accused the US of “resorting to acts of bullying” when it could not succeed in fair competitions, saying such practice would disrupt market operations, undermine investor confidence and sabotage the global economic and trade order.

As House lawmakers prepared to vote, TikTok encouraged users to call their representatives with a full-screen notification about the legislation.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew has tried to schedule 11th-hour meetings with members of Congress. The company sent letters to two lawmakers on Monday challenging their characterizations of TikTok’s call-to-action campaign as “offensive” and “patently false.”

TikTok has said that banning the app would harm 5 million businesses that rely on the platform.

CNN's Brian Fung contributed reporting to this post.