Opponents of the TikTok ban pin their hopes on the Senate

Opponents of legislation that could ban TikTok in the United States are pinning their hopes on the Senate, as the House prepares to send a major foreign aid package to the Upper House.

The legislation would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the popular app or be banned in the U.S., and is part of a foreign aid bill that the House is expected to approve in Saturday’s vote.

The House has already passed similar legislation, but the new language differs from the previous measure in important ways.

This would extend the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok from 6 months to about a year, a change that led Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) to support the bill.

The context of the legislation is also important. The House is approving the foreign aid package as a four-point bill that will then be sent to the Senate as a measure. It will include long-sought aid to Ukraine and Israel, and there could be pressure on senators not to split the package.

President Biden has already signaled his support for the overall measure and the TikTok provisions.

Despite these negative signs, TikTok, its passionate users and some lawmakers appear ready to continue their crusade against the ban.

“I think people are just starting to activate,” Nadya Okamoto, a TikTok user and small business owner, told The Hill on Friday.

Okamoto is the co-founder of menstrual care brand August and a TikTok creator with 4.1 million followers. She led an open letter signed by other TikTok creators addressed to Biden earlier this week, urging him to oppose the legislation.

Okamoto believes the pressure campaign is still growing and that people are still reacting to how quickly the new threat to the social media platform emerged.

After the new legislation was released this week, there was a sense of “‘Oh, shit, we have to take this seriously and we need to activate” within the TikTok community, she said.

TikTok had been aggressively advertising against the ban after the House passed legislation earlier this year doubling its advertising spending to $4.5 million at the end of March, according to data from AdImpact. reported by CNBC. More than $2.5 million of that went to television ads, including one titled “Built a life on TikTok” which features a nun, a teacher, a farmer and other users lamenting the potential loss of the app.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.), an ardent supporter of the ban, urged the House on Thursday to pass TikTok’s updated bill.

“For years, I have raised the alarm about the powerful national security threat posed by TikTok and strongly support its divestment from a company legally obligated to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party,” Warner said.

Proponents say a ban is necessary to prevent the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from accessing American user data, which they fear could be used to spy on users or manipulate their interests.

TikTok has strongly rejected claims that the app poses a threat to national security and criticized House leaders for adding it to the border relief package.

“It is regrettable that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again block the passage of a prohibition bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses and would shut down a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy annually,” a TikTok spokesperson told The Hill.

The decision to add the law to the broader aid package is also fueling criticism from opponents of the measure.

“I think a lot of the feeling I get, and from a lot of the creators I’ve talked to, is that it feels very sneaky and a little misleading, to package these two unrelated things together,” Okamoto said.

“It’s not good to build trust in the system and our representatives,” she said.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) called it a “backroom deal” and said he would not vote for the bill in a video posted on TikTok.

“They are attaching a TikTok ban to the foreign aid bill for aid to Ukraine. This makes no sense and I will vote no. Unfortunately, it appears the bill will pass the House and Senate and President Biden will sign it. This is what people hate about politics. We need to stand up and oppose the TikTok ban,” he said.

Opponents of the ban argue that lawmakers have not provided evidence that China’s government is weaponizing the app and that the bill violates the right to free speech.

“Longstanding Supreme Court precedent protects Americans’ First Amendment right to access information, ideas and media from abroad. By banning TikTok, the bill would infringe on that right, and for no real reward. China and other foreign adversaries could still buy sensitive American data from data brokers on the open market. And they can still engage in disinformation campaigns using American-owned platforms,” said Nadine Farid Johnson, policy director at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, in a statement.

Jenna Leventoff, ACLU senior policy counsel for the First Amendment, said the extended deadline for the sale also doesn’t significantly change concerns about the project.

The updated text extends the deadline from 180 to 270 days for the sale of TikTok, along with a 90-day extension that could be granted by the president.

“Given that the average duration of a company sale is over a year, the new longer time frame for a forced sale still does not guarantee enough time to find a buyer for such a large company, making the ban as likely as the last one. account. Congress cannot take away the rights of more than 170 million Americans who use TikTok to express themselves, engage in political advocacy and access information from around the world,” Leventoff said in a statement.

Opponents say the battle will likely end in court, much like previous attempts by the Trump administration and in states to ban TikTok that have been blocked.

Some critics of the bill took issue with just criticizing TikTok. While the bill specifically names TikTok and ByteDance, it would grant the president the authority to designate other apps under the control of China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as national security threats.

“I have real concerns about picking one company and saying there are problems with collecting all of our private data and using it however they want, and with allowing other companies to continue to engage in very similar behavior,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass. na) said Thursday.

“I understand we have specific concerns about China, but simply changing corporate ownership does not protect us from a foreign government that seeks to use social media to harm our country,” she said.

Still, some Democratic senators signaled they were willing, like Cantwell, to consider supporting the legislation.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said he has “some real concerns” about the bill but is “encouraged by the extended timeline” for the sale and is “considering supporting it.”

Mychael Schnell contributed.