Senate passes bill to force TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell or face ban

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Tuesday passed legislation that would force TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under threat of ban, a controversial move by U.S. lawmakers that is expected to face legal challenges and disruption the lives of content creators who rely on the short video app for income.

The TikTok legislation was included as part of a larger $95 billion package providing foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel and passed 79-18. Now it goes to President Joe Biden, who supported TikTok’s proposal and said he will sign the package as soon as he receives it.

A decision by House Republicans last week to attach the TikTok bill to the high-priority package helped speed its passage in Congress and came after negotiations with the Senate, where an earlier version of the bill had stalled. That version gave TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, six months to divest its stakes in the platform. But it drew skepticism from some key lawmakers, worried that it was too short a window for a complex deal that could be worth tens of billions of dollars.

See more information: House TikTok ban is an empty threat

The revised legislation extends the deadline, giving ByteDance nine months to sell TikTok and a possible three-month extension if the sale is ongoing. The bill would also prevent the company from controlling TikTok’s secret sauce: the algorithm that feeds users videos based on their interests and that has made the platform a trend-setting phenomenon.

The legislation’s passage is the culmination of long-standing bipartisan fears in Washington about Chinese threats and ownership of TikTok, which is used by 170 million Americans. For years, lawmakers and government officials have expressed concern that Chinese authorities could force ByteDance to hand over U.S. user data or influence Americans by suppressing or promoting certain content on TikTok.

“Congress is not acting to punish ByteDance, TikTok or any other individual company,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell. “Congress is acting to prevent foreign adversaries from conducting espionage, surveillance, and maligned operations that harm vulnerable Americans, our servicemen and women, and our U.S. government personnel.”

Opponents of the bill say the Chinese government could easily obtain information about Americans in other ways, including through commercial data brokers that traffic in personal information. The foreign aid package includes a provision that makes it illegal for data brokers to sell or rent “sensitive personally identifiable data” to North Korea, China, Russia, Iran or entities in those countries. But it has met with some resistance, including from the American Civil Liberties Union, which says the language is written too broadly and could cover journalists and others who publish personal information.

Many opponents of the TikTok measure argue that the best way to protect US consumers is through the implementation of a comprehensive federal data privacy law that targets all companies, regardless of their origin. They also note that the US has not provided public evidence showing that TikTok shares US user information with Chinese authorities, or that Chinese authorities ever tampered with its algorithm.

See more information: The grim reality of the TikTok ban

“Banning TikTok would be an extraordinary step that requires extraordinary justification,” said Becca Branum, deputy director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology, which advocates for digital rights. “Extending the divestment deadline does not justify the urgency of the threat to the public nor does it address the fundamental constitutional flaws in the legislation.”

China had previously said it would oppose the forced sale of TikTok and this time signaled its opposition. TikTok, which has long denied being a security threat, is also preparing legal action to block the legislation.

“At the stage when the bill is signed, we will go to court for a legal challenge,” wrote Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s head of public policy for the Americas, in a memo sent to employees on Saturday and obtained by The Associated Press.

“This is the beginning, not the end of this long process,” Beckerman wrote.

See more information: TikTok promises to fight its ban. See how the battle can play out

The company has had some success with legal challenges in the past, but has never sought to block federal legislation from taking effect.

In November, a federal judge blocked a Montana law that would have banned the use of TikTok statewide after the company and five content creators who use the platform sued. Three years before that, federal courts blocked an executive order issued by then-President Donald Trump to ban TikTok after the company sued, claiming the order violated free speech and due process rights.

The Trump administration then brokered a deal that saw US companies Oracle and Walmart acquire a large stake in TikTok. But the sale never went through.

Trump, who is running again for president this year, now says he opposes the possible ban.

See more information: Why Trump changed on TikTok

Since then, TikTok has been in talks about its future with the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a little-known government agency tasked with investigating corporate deals for national security reasons.

On Sunday, Erich Andersen, a top ByteDance lawyer who has led negotiations with the US government for years, told his team he was stepping down from his role.

“As I began to reflect a few months ago on the tensions of the last few years and the new generation of challenges that lie ahead, I decided the time was right to pass the baton to a new leader,” Andersen wrote in an internal memo. which was obtained by the AP. He said the decision to resign was entirely his and was decided months ago in a discussion with the company’s senior leaders.

Meanwhile, TikTok content creators who rely on the app are trying to make their voices heard. Earlier Tuesday, some creators gathered in front of the Capitol building to demonstrate against the bill and carry signs that said “I’m one of the 170 million Americans on TikTok,” among other things.

Tiffany Cianci, a content creator who has more than 140,000 followers on the platform and encouraged people to come out, said she spent Monday night scouting creators at airports in the D.C. area. Some came from as far away as Nevada and California. Others drove overnight from South Carolina or took a bus from upstate New York.

Cianci says he believes TikTok is the safest platform for users right now because of Project Texas, TikTok’s $1.5 billion mitigation plan to store U.S. user data on servers owned and maintained by the giant. of Oracle technology.

“If our data is not safe on TikTok,” she said. “I would ask why the president is on TikTok.”

—Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Matt O’Brien contributed to this report.