Sen. Schumer, Rep. Markey, and a Democrat on Twitter: “I Need them to move” on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s anti-Tikik-Tok Propaganda

There is also an acknowledgment that if six months is not enough time to make a transition to a new owner, as the House bill specifies, the Senate could amend the legislation and provide a longer time frame.

When asked when the bill would get to the Senate, Schumer sidestepped the question and instead told reporters he was in talks with his caucus.

TikTok denounced the House bill as an attempt to limit free speech rights of its users and argued that shutting it down would hurt small businesses that rely on it for their livelihood.

Cotton said that studies show the use of the algorithm to highlight specific political points of view. Cotton pointed to what he described as a “clear skew in pro-Hamas propaganda on TikTok versus other social media apps” and added, “You don’t need an academic study to use common sense.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over the issue, told reporters she wanted a public hearing, potentially with the Senate Intelligence Committee, a move that could slow down Senate action.

Warner agreed. “We’ve got still some education to do — to members and, frankly, the public,” he said. He noted the speedy House passage of the legislation and conceded, “I’m not sure the Senate has got that same kind of timetable.”

He cited statistics about the rise in teen suicides and the link to the explosion of use of multiple social media platforms. Markey declined to say whether he opposes the House bill, but he said the media’s coverage of the debate over TikTok was “allowing one company to dominate the discussion, which is every American company is part of that very same threat that is occurring right now, not in the future.” Markey said he has sponsored broader bills with new guardrails around all social media companies, and he told reporters at the Capitol, “I need them to move.”

It’s not unusual for top Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee to point out that it is up to the Chinese government to dictate what technology can and can’t be used.

Blumenthal declined to say what evidence was presented that detailed that ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, was sharing Americans’ private data with the Chinese government, but he said, “All of it should be made public.”

Warner said, “The reality is that we have that entity having a lot of personal data, access to it, and the ability to manipulate it on a platform that a lot of young people look to as their No. 1 news source.”

Sen. Mark Warner endorsed the House bill in a closed-door classified briefing on the impact of the video-sharing app TikTok

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, endorsed the House bill and told reporters he backed declassifying some of the analysis communicated in the briefing, which he organized for his colleagues to discuss the impact of the video-sharing app.

Many senators emerging from the session argued it was time to take up House-passed legislation that would force the Chinese owner of TikTok to divest or face a ban in the United States. While there is a chance that the Senate will act in weeks or months, the chamber may put its own stamp on a bill.

Senators from both parties say the public should get access to at least some of the sensitive information that U.S. agencies shared at a closed-door classified intelligence briefing Wednesday about the influence and reach of TikTok.