A TikTok ban is unlikely in the U.S., but Congress continues to introduce bills aimed at allaying national security concerns raised by the app.
AFP via Getty ImagesThe bipartisan leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party are introducing a national security bill targeting social media apps, including TikTok, that are owned by companies subject to the control of a foreign adversary. By focusing narrowly on corporate ownership, committee aides say the legislation allays free speech concerns that have slowed or drawn criticism of past proposals dealing with tech and national security.
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act—from Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher and Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi—is aimed at addressing concerns about China, Russia, Iran and North Korea’s potential to influence, surveil or access sensitive data on Americans. It specifically namechecks TikTok, owned by Beijing-based parent ByteDance, but would also cover other ByteDance-owned apps in the U.S. as well as other sizable social media apps owned or controlled (over 20 percent) by an entity that is headquartered or primarily doing business in an adversary country.
The hope, one committee aide said, is that “the TikToks of the future can be addressed as well.”
The bill also outlines a process through which the president can designate adversary-owned apps of concern and offer incentives for their owners to divest the app—unraveling TikTok from ByteDance, for example. The goal, according to committee aides, is to allow the apps to stay up and running in the U.S. while tackling ownership issues that could pose privacy and national security risks. (Once a divestment is complete, the app would no longer be restricted.) But short of divesting, platforms determined to be of concern would be banned across U.S. app stores and web hosting providers.
Got a tip about TikTok or ByteDance? Reach out securely to Alexandra S. Levine on Signal/WhatsApp at (310) 526–1242 or email at alevine@forbes.com.
A TikTok ban in the U.S. is unlikely, despite threats under current and former presidential administrations and intense bipartisan scrutiny; more than 150 million Americans and scores of businesses here have used or relied on TikTok, making an outright ban on the app politically unpopular, particularly so in an election year. But the app has been used to surveil individual Americans, including a journalist at Forbes, leading to concerns that it could be used to monitor U.S. citizens on a larger scale with little oversight. Forbes investigations have revealed that ByteDance also maintains tools that can exert control over what users say and see on its platforms, heightening concerns that its suite of apps, including TikTok, could be used to sway discourse during high stakes, polarizing events like the looming presidential election.
Committee aides said that more than a dozen lawmakers have endorsed the bill but declined to share who, specifically, is supporting it. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
