GOP rams through TikTok ban bill over Dem objections

Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee forced through a bill that could effectively ban TikTok from all mobile devices in the U.S. despite united opposition from Democrats — a rare breakdown of congressional bipartisanship on the alleged threat posed by Chinese tech.

“Everybody knows what TikTok is,” committee Chair Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said on Tuesday as the panel debated the fate of the popular Chinese-owned video app. “It's too dangerous to be on our phones as members of Congress. In my judgment, it's too dangerous to be on our children's phones. That's the whole point of this bill.”

The committee ultimately advanced McCaul’s DATA Act, H.R. 1153, on Wednesday morning by a vote of 24 to 16, with all Democrats voting no. The legislation would grant the president new authorities to ban foreign-owned applications, and would require the imposition of sanctions on companies with ties to TikTok or other Chinese-owned apps.

The vote came after a lengthy back-and-forth on Tuesday, with Republicans repeatedly shooting down Democratic amendments meant to rein in different parts of the legislation. In a brief interview with POLITICO on the sidelines of Tuesday’s markup, McCaul said he hoped the split wasn’t the start of a broader collapse of bipartisanship on issues related to Chinese tech.

“We’ve been negotiating this for a solid month, without a whole lot of progress,” McCaul said. “The bottom line is, [Democrats are] not prepared to go forward on any measure related to TikTok. They would prefer to defer to the CFIUS process, where we want to move forward as a Congress.” McCaul was referring to a long-running security review of the risks posed by TikTok by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based parent company, has long denied any association with Beijing’s surveillance or propaganda operations. Its critics, however, point to requirements in Chinese law that require companies based in-country to comply with any and all requests from state intelligence services.

Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the committee’s ranking member, disputed the notion that Democrats would oppose any bill that targets TikTok. In a brief conversation with reporters on Tuesday, he said Democrats are open to “more conversation and dialogue” on a TikTok ban — but, he added, “we have to have all of the facts.”

“I don’t want to supersede CFIUS,” Meeks said. “In the meanwhile, we can be having hearings and conversations, bringing in witnesses and experts on sanctions.”

Meeks said the DATA Act was “unvetted” and had been thrust on his staff with little warning. “We could have held hearings before the markup and carefully crafted bipartisan legislation together,” Meeks said Tuesday. “Instead, my staff and I received the text of this legislation a little over a week ago, and have only had several days to review a bill that would dramatically rewrite the rules-based international economic order.”

Aside from that debate on process, Tuesday’s markup discussion revealed a widening gap in how Republicans and Democrats perceive the threat they say TikTok poses. The GOP increasingly frames the company as a willing participant in Beijing’s espionage activities — McCaul called it a “spy balloon in your phone.” But Democrats appear hesitant to ban an app that roughly 100 million Americans use each month.

“We cannot act rashly without consideration of the very real soft power, free speech and economic consequences of a ban,” Meeks said on Tuesday. He later warned his colleagues against using the tactics of “fear” to pass a TikTok ban. “I’ve seen that tactic utilized before — fear that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, without evidence or proof,” he said.

In response to the Wednesday vote, TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said that a "U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide."

"We’re disappointed to see this rushed piece of legislation move forward, despite its considerable negative impact on the free speech rights of millions of Americans who use and love TikTok," Oberwetter added.

The DATA Act would alter a portion of U.S. law known as the Berman amendments — which allow for the free flow of “informational material” from hostile countries — to provide what McCaul called a “constitutional framework” that would let the president ban a foreign app. In 2020, TikTok invoked the Beman amendments as part of its successful court effort to block an attempted Trump administration ban.

The bill would also require the president to impose sanctions on companies with ties to Chinese-owned apps that are “reasonable [sic] believed to have facilitated or may be facilitating or contributing to” a broad slate of nefarious activities by Beijing.

On Tuesday, Meeks called that language “dangerously overbroad.” He warned it would inadvertently impose sanctions on a wide swath of U.S. and allied companies that do business with Chinese firms, including independent subsidiaries that operate outside the reach of Beijing.

The DATA Act has already prompted outside pushback. The American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter on Monday that urged lawmakers to oppose the bill, which it called “vague and overbroad” as well as a violation of the First Amendment. On Tuesday, progressive tech group Fight for the Future launched a “#DontBanTikTok” campaign opposing the legislation.

While McCaul’s TikTok bill is the first to pass out of committee this Congress, it’s not the only legislation percolating on Capitol Hill. In January, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) unveiled their own TikTok ban bill. And in February Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla). introduced legislation to ban the app. A previous version of that bill was backed late last year by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who now chairs the new Select Committee on China.

Gavin Bade contributed to this report.