The House approved a bill Wednesday, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, that calls for the China based ByteDance company to divest their popular short form content platform TikTok or face a potential ban in the United States, according to CNBC.
The controversial legislation passed with a convincing 352-65 vote and with one member voting present. It was initially introduced earlier this month, back on March 5th, by Reps. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
The bill will now head to the Senate where it faces uncertainty moving forward.
“This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: it’s a ban,” a TikTok spokesperson said after the vote was passed in an official 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.”
President Joe Biden, who ironically created his own TikTok account earlier this year, has been on record saying that he would sign the bill into law if it is passed.
Additionally, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged that the White House is providing “technical support” in the crafting of the legislation.
The bill has been the talk of the political world and certainly on content creator social media where it could have a profound impact on the business and influencers who have built audiences and brands on the TikTok platform.
“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” former President Donald Trump said. Trump had previously attempted to remove TikTok from app stores while he was in office back in 2020.
Should the bill pass, TikTok could fetch a hefty price on the market, and had previously drawn interest from Microsoft in a deal that would have been reportedly in the price range of $10 billion and $30 billion, but the deal eventually would fall through.
Stay tuned to see how the Senate handles the divisive legislation.
