On March 13, the United States House of Representatives passed, “HR 7521: Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” a bill that proposes to either force the sale of TikTok, a short-form video app, to an American company or ban it nationwide.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Gallagher of Texas on March 5, comes after concerns about the access that TikTok’s parent company and tech industry megalith, Bytedance, has over the data of users and whether that data is accessible to the Chinese Communist party.
“This is a common-sense measure to protect our national security,” said Gallagher during debates on March 13. “It takes no position at all on the content of speech, only foreign adversary control.”
The bill still needs to pass through the Senate, but due to the Senate’s spring recess, it will be at least until April 1 when a vote happens, if not later.
“I think it’s important to get it right,” said Senate Commerce Committee Chair D-Washington Maria Cantwell (to NBC News. “We need intent here, and the intent is we want to stop nefarious actors from doing deleterious things.”
This approach of slow and steady wins in the race was shared by other members of the Senate.
“We’ve got a way’s to go,” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) to NBC News suggesting the senate would likely write its own bill.
If the bill (in its current form) passes, the company will have five months to sell off the American portion of TikTok to an American buyer. Failing that it will lead to a nationwide ban on the app.
The bill has received a great deal of criticism, partially for its broad language, while the initial target of it is TikTok some are worried it won’t stay that way for long.
“A social media company that is controlled by a foreign adversary and has been determined by the President to present a significant threat to national security,” the Bill reads.
In the law, a foreign adversary is determined by the President, and thus if it were to pass many are concerned that it could be used to infringe on Free Speech.
“At no point in the bill is the term ‘subject to the direction or control of a foreign person’ defined. It doesn’t even require that this “foreign person” be an agent of a foreign adversary. It is literally anyone who is in that country’” wrote Florida Congressman Greg Steube posted on X.
Others are quick to point out that concerns about data privacy and consumer safety fall flat due to the singular focus on TikTok. As many of america’s own tech companies have engaged in dubious data collection long before TikToK was on the scene.
The Cambridge Analytica data breach in 2018 impacted 87 million Facebook users in 2018, according to CNBC.This harvested data was used to engage in targeted advertising specifically for political campaigns such as Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Brexit.
While the UK and EU have introduced far stricter data privacy laws in the intervening years, such as General Data Protection Regulation, the U.S. has not.
“I don’t see it as just a TikTok issue, because companies such as Google and other instances like that, they sell your data so in my opinion I don’t think it’s just a TikTok issue, I think it’s an issue overall ” said Taylor Horn, president of the Delta College Politics and Law Club, when asked about data privacy concerns. “I don’t think a ban is the right direction for that.”
Even if a ban were to come to pass, some doubt it’s efficacy.
“I think they should have laws and regulations on like TikTok and other social media for data privacy, I don’t think a ban solves anything because people will just work around a ban,” Horn said.
According to a study on cyber security website ecurity.org updated this January, more than 46 percent of Americans used a VPN in 2023. This number is up from 39 percent in 2022 which could represent a hurdle of enforcing a TikTok ban should it come to pass.
With unsteady ground heading into the rest of 2024, the CEO of TikTok posted a message on X to the app’s users, thanking them for their support: “You are what makes TikTok so special.”