TikTok Sale Mandate Clears US House, Heads to Senate for Further Review

With a landslide vote, the US House has passed a law forcing the sale of TikTok, a short video platform subsidiary of Chinese tech giant ByteDance.

According to AP and The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the US House passed the “bill to protect citizens from applications controlled by an enemy nation” on the 13th (local time) with 352 votes in favor and 65 against.

The bill stipulates that if ByteDance, headquartered in China, does not sell TikTok within 165 days, TikTok will be expelled from the US app market. The House explained, “Half the US population, 170 million Americans, use TikTok. Their personal information could be transferred to China, posing a serious security threat.”

The day before the bill was voted on, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Director of National Intelligence (DNI) reportedly held a private briefing in the House to explain the status of TikTok’s information leakage and security threats. Jake Sullivan, the White House National Security Advisor, emphasized at the meeting, “This is not about banning TikTok, but about whether American’s personal information is in the US or China.”

The House passed the law forcing the sale of TikTok that day, but it must go through a vote in the Senate. The WSJ reported, “Senators are under pressure from both lobbyists hired by TikTok and members of the House. With divided opinions for and against, it is highly likely that the Senate will modify some of the bill’s contents.”