TikTok crackdown passes U.S. House: What to know about today's vote

The U.S. Congress has moved a big step closer to a crackdown on a popular platform that could have far-reaching implications for social media in the country.

It involves a bill with ma‐ jor implications for the fastgrowing site TikTok, renowned for addictive videos and used by hundreds of millions around the world, including millions in Canada.

At issue are alleged con‐ cerns about risks to national security and young users. The counter-claim: American politicians are unfairly pick‐ ing on a Chinese-owned com‐ pany.

Here's what's happening.

House vote passes Wednesday

The House of Representa‐ tives voted overwhelmingly Wednesday in favour of a bill called the Protecting Ameri‐ cans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. It passed in a largely bipartisan vote, supported by more than three-quarters of the chamber in a 352-65 vote.

The bill specifically cites TikTok. But it could apply to apps owned in countries des‐ ignated as foreign adver‐ saries under U.S. law - mean‐ ing Iran, Russia, North Korea and China.

The bill presents two op‐ tions: China-based ByteDance would have to sell TikTok within 180 days, or TikTok would be banned in the U.S. This would make it il‐ legal for app stores and web servers there to host, main‐ tain, distribute or feature the site.

"This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chi‐ nese Communist Party or lose access to your American users," said the bill's original sponsor, Republican Con‐ gressman Mike Gallagher.

The lawmakers voting against the bill constituted an unusual alliance: progres‐ sives like Alexandria OcasioCortez teamed up with cer‐ tain Donald Trump allies, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, and libertarians.

One opponent stood out in particular: As the top Democrat on the chamber's intelligence committee, Jim Himes said he has better in‐ sight than most into online threats.

But as he voted against the bill, he said one of the U.S.'s defining features is that, unlike certain countries, it does not shut down media.

WATCH | House vote a 'surprising and strong' show of bipartisanship, analyst says:

Fate in Senate: TBD

To become law, the bill still needs to pass the U.S. Sen‐ ate. This is by no means guaranteed.

In fact, it's common for bills to pass one chamber and stall in the other. It's happened on gun control, cli‐ mate change, immigration and, lately, on Ukraine aid.

To date, the U.S. Senate is non-committal.

It's notable that the Sen‐ ate has its own social media bill that would force all large platforms to reform their practices.

The Senate's Kids Online Safety Act does not target TikTok specifically. It requires all platforms to install new safeguards against bullying, sexual exploitation and talk of suicide; to open up their algorithms to researchers; al‐ low parental monitoring; and to produce annual reports on risks and harms.

That broader bill appears to have enough support to pass the Senate.

"[This bill is] just incredi‐ bly important," said Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay For Kids, an onlinesafety advocacy group.

"Right now, the only way these platforms make deci‐ sions about their design is, 'Is this going to increase a young person's time and ac‐ tivity on our site - so we can make more money?' "

His group fears Congress might pass the TikTok bill then ignore the other, broad‐ er one.

If both chambers pass ei‐ ther bill, they would require U.S. President Joe Biden's sig‐ nature. The president has al‐ ready indicated he would sign the TikTok bill.

China, by the way, restric‐ ts, western apps. Major plat‐ forms, even news sites, are routinely banned under that country's so-called Great Firewall.

The complaints about TikTok

U.S. officials do not believe assurances that TikTok's data is kept from the Chinese gov‐ ernment just because its servers are outside China.

Under Chinese law, they say, the parent company, ByteDance, must take orders from the central government; its staff even includes per‐ sonnel from China's govern‐ ment and ruling party.

Leaked audio from inter‐ nal TikTok meetings shows that user data is repeatedly accessed from China. Tik‐ Tok's parent company al‐ legedly helped build China's system for cracking down on Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group in the Xinjiang province. A former em‐ ployee alleges it also helped authorities track protesters in Hong Kong.

American law enforce‐ ment agencies are reportedly investigating after the com‐ pany confirmed it had moni‐ tored the whereabouts and data of U.S. journalists.

ByteDance officials re‐ signed and were fired over the incident.

The just-released annual report by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence alleges a Chinese propaganda arm used TikTok accounts to target candidates from both political parties in the 2022 U.S. midterm elections.

The company further an‐ gered U.S. politicians last week - by encouraging their tens of millions of users to bombard members of Con‐ gress with complaints about the potential ban.

"And that's just the begin‐ ning. Imagine when China wants to use it more nefari‐ ously? Imagine when they want to truly engage in psy‐ chological warfare against the American people," said Republican Dan Crenshaw.

"That's why we are so concerned about this. It's not because we're old and grumpy, and we don't under‐ stand TikTok."

The company says it's pri‐ vately owned and is spending more than $1 billion US to partner with U.S.-based com‐ pany Oracle to store user da‐ ta in Texas.

On child safety, Golin said social-media giants are all doing damage.

As an example, he cited an allegation against Face‐ book contained in a lawsuit. Staff warned CEO Mark Zuckerberg that a photo filter mimicking plastic surgery was damaging the mental health of young girls - but he overruled them.

Golin said he's seen anec‐ dotes - but no hard evidence - that TikTok is especially ad‐ dictive.

He cited one such anec‐ dote from a major personalinjury lawsuit. It describes a common social media strategy based on behaviour‐ al psychology developed

from old experiments with lab mice.

TikTok allegedly uses that technique, "intermittent vari‐ able rewards," to keep users from logging off; the algo‐ rithm has a sense of which videos a user wants, and doesn't show them all at once, but spaces them out, according to the suit.

"All [sites are] using the same techniques. It's just a question of whose secret sauce is maybe a little bit more effective at this point," Golin said.

"[TikTok] seem to be per‐ haps even more Machiavelli‐ an and successful," he said. "What people constantly re‐ port is, like, 'I didn't even know I wanted to watch that video until TikTok sent it to me. And the next thing I knew, it was three hours later.' "

Trump's surprise flipflop

There's one famous Republi‐ can who has opposed the bill, much to his party's sur‐ prise. In a sudden announce‐ ment, Donald Trump came out against it last week.

Trump tried banning the app as president. He still maintains there are security concerns, but says he now opposes the move because it would help Facebook, anoth‐ er Trump nemesis.

Here's an element Trump didn't mention: money.

Jeff Yass, the biggest donor to Club For Growth, one of the biggest-spending political-donation groups in the country, also happens to be the largest U.S. investor in TikTok with shares worth bil‐ lions. He has reportedly threatened to cut off funds to politicians who back the Tik‐ Tok bill.

Though the two report‐ edly had a falling out, Trump said several weeks ago that he's back on good terms with Yass and Club For Growth.

The bill has split Trump's allies.

One of his staunchest de‐ fenders in Congress, Elise Stefanik, signed onto the bill as a co-sponsor; other proTrump groups are staunchly supportive.

But some libertarians, and public personalities like Tuck‐ er Carlson and Elon Musk are on Trump's side here. As is Trump ally Kellyanne Con‐ way, who has reportedly been hired to lobby for Tik‐ Tok.

WATCH | What to know about TikTok security con‐ cerns:

Unprecedented? Yes and no

Has there ever been a com‐ parable case of a massive in‐ formation platform used by hundreds of millions being forced to divest or disap‐ pear? Not quite.

But it's a new twist on an old practice.

According to a piece in the

Stanford Law Review, the U.S. has periodically cited nation‐ al security to restrict foreign presence in certain industries since the dawn of the repub‐ lic - touching banking, ship‐ ping, radio, aeronautics and energy, starting from the 1790s.

The U.S. has also blocked foreign ownership bids for U.S. companies a handful of times over the last decade. In virtually every case it in‐ volved Chinese attempts to purchase U.S.-based tech‐ nology companies.

The context for all this? The U.S. rivalry with China, and fears that it could someday break into open conflict over Taiwan.