- The US House of Representatives has voted 360 to 58 to approve a bill that would ban TikTok nationwide within a year if its China-based owner, ByteDance, doesn't divest its stakes in the app. Forbes (LR: 3 CP: 5)
- The legislation, part of foreign aid and national security bills voted on Saturday, now heads to the Senate for an expected approval. Politico
- A bill giving ByteDance six months to sell TikTok passed the House in March but stalled in the Senate, reportedly due to concerns that a legal challenge could jeopardize the ban. National Review (LR: 5 CP: 5)
- Saturday's House vote has bipartisan support amid allegations that the PRC could force ByteDance to share American user data or modify the algorithm to boost content favorable to Beijing. Associated Press (LR: 3 CP: 5)
- ByteDance denies being subservient to the Chinese government, arguing that global investment firms own 60% of its stake and three of its five board members are Americans. BBC News (LR: 3 CP: 5)
- This comes after China, which opposes a forced sale of its most internationally successful app, ordered Apple to remove certain apps from the app store on Friday to prevent them from being downloaded via Virtual Private Network (VPN). Wall Street Journal (LR: 3 CP: 5)
Pro-establishment narrative:
- This bill is the latest move by the US to force TikTok to be sold to a government-approved buyer as concerns about user data security and potential misinformation mount worldwide. Given that Chinese companies can be legally obliged to provide data to Beijing, TikTok is an obvious national security threat.
NEW YORK TIMES (LR: 2 CP: 5)
Establishment-critical narrative:
- Whether Congress censors are likely to soon sign this bill into law, the Supreme Court may eventually rule that a TikTok ban violates the First Amendment and its coerced sale violates the Fifth Amendment. Otherwise, the US government will dangerously have the power to force the sale of American companies for doing business with China.
REASON.COM
Nerd narrative:
- There's a 94% chance that the US government will either ban TikTok or force a sale before 2025, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
METACULUS (LR: 3 CP: 3)