A group of lawmakers has introduced a new bill that would force ByteDance to sell TikTok to keep the app available in the United States. The Protecting Americans from Applications Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act would prohibit U.S. app stores and web hosting services from distributing TikTok unless it is separated from parent company ByteDance.
The bill is the latest in a long line of attempts by lawmakers and other officials to ban or force app sales. Former President Donald Trump tried to force a sale of TikTok in 2020, but ultimately failed. The Biden administration is also pressuring the company to sell. And a U.S. District Court judge recently blocked an attempt to ban the app in Montana.
The new bill, introduced by a bipartisan group of House members, takes a different approach. This gives ByteDance six months to sell TikTok before the ban takes effect at the app store level. It would also require TikTok and other apps to “provide users with a copy of their data in a format that can be imported” into competing apps. And while TikTok is mentioned multiple times in the bill's text, the bill would pave the way for banning other “foreign adversary-controlled” apps if the president deems them a national security threat. Become.
“This bill would completely ban TikTok, no matter how hard its creators try to hide it,” TikTok said. statement. “This legislation would trample on the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of the platform they depend on for growth and job creation. ”
TikTok CEO Shou Chew argued that the sale would not fully address officials' concerns about US user data. The company has been addressing national security concerns about its services for years through an initiative called Project Texas. The plan, created after years of negotiations with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), would segregate U.S. users' data to U.S.-based servers and allow government officials to oversee audits of TikTok's sources. become. Other aspects of the code and its operation.
washington post We reported last year that negotiations between TikTok and CFIUS had recently been “resurrected amid suspicion.” [Biden] The government has the power to ban TikTok on its own. ” If Congress can pass the new bill, those questions will be answered and a new process created to give ByteDance enforcement powers.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other digital rights groups have criticized the government's efforts to ban TikTok. In a statement about the latest bill, the ACLU said the proposed measures are “unconstitutional” and would undermine free speech. “While the bill's sponsors claim that banning TikTok is not suppressing speech, there is no denying that that is exactly what it would do,” said senior policy adviser Jenna Leventov.
Columbia University's nonprofit Knight First Amendment Institute raised similar concerns. “Congress can protect data privacy and security without prohibiting Americans from accessing the world's most popular communications platform,” Jameel Jaffer, the group's executive director, said in a statement. “We should start by passing comprehensive privacy laws that limit the types of information that TikTok and other platforms can collect.”
Updated March 5, 2024 at 6:50 PM ET: This article has been updated with comments from the ACLU and the Knight First Amendment Institute.
