The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill on Wednesday that would force TikTok to divest from its Chinese owner or be banned from the United States.
The video-sharing app has gained worldwide appeal, but its Chinese ownership and its subordination to the Communist Party in Beijing have raised concerns. The regulation is a significant setback for the service.
In a rare show of bipartisanship in politically divided Washington, the lawmakers voted 352 in favor of the proposed legislation and 65 against.
The more circumspect Senate, however, may not support the bill as several influential members are wary of taking such a strong stance against an app that has 170 million US users.
President Joe Biden will sign the bill, known officially as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, into law if it came to his desk, the White House has said.
“This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: it’s a ban,” said a spokesperson for TikTok in a statement.
“We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service,” the spokesperson added.
The measure, which only gained momentum in the past few days, requires TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to sell the app within 180 days or see it barred from the Apple and Google app stores in the United States.
It also gives the president power to designate other applications to be a national security threat if they are under the control of a country considered adversarial to the US.
The renewed campaign against TikTok came out of the blue to the company, the Wall Street Journal reported, with TikTok executives reassured when Biden joined the app last month as part of his campaign for a second term.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is in Washington, trying to stop progress on the bill.
China warned on Wednesday that the move will “inevitably come back to bite the United States.”
“Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, condemning it as “bullying behavior.”
Republican lawmakers approved the bill, in an unusual act of defiance against Donald Trump.
In a shift from his previous stance, Trump stated on Monday that he was opposed to a ban, citing the fact that it would benefit Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, which he termed a “enemy of the people.”
Other attempts to outlaw TikTok have failed, with a bill submitted a year ago falling flat because to worries about free expression.
Similarly, a Montana state law banning the site was suspended by a federal judge on suspicion of violating constitutional free speech rights.
TikTok categorically rejects any ties to the Chinese government and claims to have restructured the company such that US consumers’ data remains in the USA under independent monitoring.
