Congress goes wobbly on TikTok

Only days after TikTok's CEO endured a bipartisan flogging on Capitol Hill, a Senate bill meant to rein in the company — released with much bipartisan fanfareand a bevy of endorsements earlier this month — is starting to look shakier.

The bill, known as the RESTRICT Act, would give the Commerce Department and White House sweeping new powers to ban or restrict a wide range of communications and technology products coming from China. The bill would deprive TikTok of a crucial legal defense that it used to defeat the Trump administration’s attempted ban in 2020, and is considered key to any meaningful effort by the Biden administration to ban the Chinese-owned app.

Until this week, the legislation appeared to be sailing ahead. Its chief sponsors, Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John Thune (R-S.D.), had convinced more than 20 of their colleagues to sign onto the bill. And with the White House already on board and talks with House leadership allegedly underway, a quick trip to the president’s desk wasn’t out of the question.

But key senators are now suggesting they’re ambivalent about RESTRICT. A right-wing backlash to the legislation is building. And top Republicans in the House are claiming the Senate bill goes too easy on TikTok — and are spreading misinformation about it in the process.

Speaking with reporters Wednesday, Thune said he expected the RESTRICT Act “could move very quickly” as long as it gets a prompt markup. “If we can get a markup in the Senate Commerce Committee, I think we can probably get it across the floor in the Senate,” he said.

But Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), who has yet to officially endorse the bill, appears to be in no hurry. And after telling reporters earlier this month that she thought the RESTRICT Act was “a good idea,” on Thursday she appeared to backpedal slightly.

“I said it’s a start, saying that the Commerce secretary might play a larger role,” Cantwell said. The senator said she didn’t yet know if the breadth of the bill’s restrictions on Chinese and other foreign tech were cause for concern, and that her attention is for now focused on other topics.

“My primary concern is we need a data privacy bill,” Cantwell said.

While conservatives are generally the loudest supporters of a TikTok ban, this week saw a significant backlash to RESTRICT from right-of-center circles. The furor soon reached Fox News — on Wednesday, host Jesse Watters called RESTRICT “garbage” and suggested it would curtail personal freedoms.

Watters demanded an explanation from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a sponsor of RESTRICT who had joined him on the program. But Graham said he was unaware that he had signed onto the bill — and suggested that if it was as bad as Watters said, he may need to retool.

“The problem is real with China,” Graham said. “But the solution can be more damaging than the problem, that’s sort of what you’re telling me.” (On Thursday, Graham spokesperson Kevin Bishop told POLITICO that the senator still supports RESTRICT.)

Warner also had to defend the bill this week from accusations that it would undermine free speech and expand government surveillance. And while he has repeatedly suggested he’s talking with House GOP leadership on RESTRICT, a companion bill has yet to emerge in the lower chamber.

But other bills targeting TikTok are percolating in the House. That includes the DATA Act, a bill from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) that was marked up earlier this month, and the ANTI-SOCIAL CCP Act, legislation backed by new Select Committee on China Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.). And both of those Republicans claim the RESTRICT Act is weak tea.

“The Warner-Thune bill just doesn’t have a lot of teeth to it, and it keeps the algorithms in Beijing,” McCaul said last week. On Wednesday, Gallagher complained that the Senate bill “doesn’t actually ban TikTok.”

Strangely, both lawmakers also suggested that TikTok supports passage of RESTRICT. “The joke is that TikTok endorsed that bill,” McCaul said last week. Gallagher said Wednesday that he believed “TikTok has endorsed the RESTRICT Act,” suggesting that “should be a sign that that’s not the preferred approach.”

When asked on Thursday about the claim that the company has endorsed the Senate bill, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter replied with the ROFL, sobbing and straight face emojis. “Totally false,” she said.