TikTok as a Threat to the House of Representatives and Foreign Governments: The Case of Minnesota “That Midwestern Mom“
TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance, views the House legislation as an existential threat but not a novel attack, since the social media app has fended off numerous other attempts to put it out of business.
Two years ago, “That Midwestern Mom” uploaded one of her quirky Minnesota “salad” concoctions to TikTok, where it was shared thousands of times. The ingredients — Snickers bars, apples, Jell-O and Cool Whip — made her a viral sensation.
Other TikTokers use their platform as a means of giving back. William McCoy is a former drug dealer and afelon from Baltimore who goes by the name of “Izzy White”. He said he uses his platform to help homeless people in his community.
In a court filing last year, a former ByteDance executive stated that the Chinese government has used its “superuser” credentials to spy on Hong Kong protesters, something the company denies.
TikTok isn’t the only platform that collects that kind of information. Many platforms collect information, including American platforms, that is then made available to data broker who then sell it to foreign governments.
The Bipartisan Measure that Protects Privacy and the Privacy of Video Sharing Apps: Rep. Mike Gallagher on the House Select Committee on China
The bipartisan measure was approved by the House Energy and Commerce committee. It’s about to go to the floor after a process that requires two-thirds of the house to pass.
The bill, which is a bipartisan effort, does not amount to a ban of the video sharing app, according to Rep. Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House Select committee on China.
The app is a threat to user privacy, it’s been used to target journalists and interfere in elections, and those are some of the reasons why it is classified and unclassified. On Tuesday, top officials from national security agencies briefed members of the House on their analysis.
TikTok creators are questioning the bill. “It’s unclear that this bill is going to actually protect Americans, but I don’t think that’s really the goal,” says Charlotte Palermino, CEO and founder of skin-care brand Dieux, a popular creator on TikTok and other platforms. “I find it to be very silly, but I think that it’s a nice encapsulation of American politics today, where we have people that do not understand technology trying to regulate it.”
He said that member offices had been deluged with calls and that one person impersonated one of his colleague’s sons. “That demonstrates how the platform can be weaponized in the future.”
The president will need to address any threats from foreign apps if they are considered a national security risk. It also creates a system for users to download their own data and switch to an alternate platform.
The ranking Democrat on the House Select committee onChina is from Illinois and he helped write the bill. He pushed back on the company’s argument, telling NPR, “There’s no first amendment right to espionage, there’s no first amendment right to harm our national security.”
The company is attempting to address data privacy concerns and keep users’ data in the U.S. with the help of an effort called “Project Texas.”
Why Doesn’t Facebook Have a Bad Privacy Law? An Explanation in a CNN Interview with President Donald Trump on TikTok
Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, proposed a ban back in 2020 when he was in the White House. He is against the House bill.
The president banned the social media app when he was in office. Trump explained his new opposition in an interview with CNBC on Monday, saying that despite his the possible security risk, he opposed a ban because it meant users would move to another platform that he considered more dangerous.
“There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. He believes that without TikTok you can make Facebook bigger, and that it’s an enemy to the people along with the media.
There are lots of videos on TikTok that are about the U.S. economy. One popular group of posts uses the term “Silent Depression.” The posts falsely suggest that the country is in worse shape today than it was in 1930. (My colleagues Jeanna Smialek and Jim Tankersley reported on the posts late last year.)
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PACE): How many senators can you put a hold on?
The Wall Street Journal found that after Hamas launched a terrorist attack, TikTok flooded users with videos expressing extreme positions from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Journal reported that many stirred fear. In November, videos praising an old Osama bin Laden letter also went viral.
The US intelligence community has accused the Chinese government of using TikTok to spread their propaganda to Americans and of trying to sway the upcoming mid-term elections. The Communist Party of China may attempt to influence the presidential election in the US, according to the report.
President Joe Biden has already said he would sign the bill, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, if both chambers advance it.
Even though the bill sailed through the House only a week after its introduction, it won’t be easy to get it passed in the Senate.
To start, there’s no companion bill yet, so the legislation is barely at the start line in that chamber. And even if one is introduced, Senate rules could make it tricky to maintain enough support (60 out of 100 members) to clear it. Just one senator can put a hold on legislation to keep it from advancing quickly.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has indicated he could be willing to do just that. He told The Washington Post prior to the House vote that he would block any bill he believed to violate the Constitution and said Congress shouldn’t “be trying to take away the First Amendment rights of [170] million Americans.”
The RESTRICT Act Against TikTok’s Invasion: Sen. Josh Hawley and Sen. Ed Markey
A long legal process could leave room for doubts — and lobbying money — to seep in. Consider the splashy introduction of the RESTRICT Act — another attempt to ban TikTok — in the Senate last year just before TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified in the House. The measure fell under the radar as opponents came up with their own criticisms. Ultimately, it failed to move through the chamber.
But Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) maintained his longtime support for taking action on TikTok’s China ties, saying on X after the House vote that “the Senate should take up this bill immediately.”
The Senate Intelligence Committee chairman and vice chair, both democrats, were encouraged by the bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives today and look forward to working with each other to bring this bill to the floor.
Warner was the sponsor of the RESTRICT Act and so he is willing to get behind the House bill. Warner’s support for the new House legislation shows he’s willing to pursue other paths to deal with the threats he perceives from TikTok’s ownership.
“We have a Big Tech privacy problem and we need to legislate it for children, as well as for adults,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) wrote on X on Wednesday. US owned companies are preying on children and teens for profit. We don’t need to ban TikTok to fix their invasive practices. The answer is passing my COPPA 2.0.
What will the Senate do next? The case of the TikTok Social Media Dilemma and the PAMELA-Newton-New York bill
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has so far been noncommittal about the path the bill could take. Schumer said simply in a statement after the House passed the bill that “The Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House.”
Several supporters emphasized that the bill is not an all-out ban, but instead an incentive to force divestment so TikTok can separate its ties to China.
The bill opponents on both sides of the aisle echoed the same concerns. Proponents of the bill are concerned that the bill will come with unacceptable limits on free speech and expansion of governmental power.
“It’s dangerous to give the president that kind of power, to give him the power to decide what Americans can see on their phones and on their computers,” said Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).
Although Chew faced bipartisan grilling, some Democrats in particular expressed reservations about an all-out ban. Lawmakers pushed for the legislation, but a strong lobbying campaign by TikTok and concerns about giving too much executive branch power over the private sector ended the act.
The bill could potentially be used to force the sale of other social media platforms, especially X, which is owned by Musk, and Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was worried about that.
Representative Kamlager-Dove stated that Chinese influence operations are not limited to TikTok. In November 2023, Meta announced that it had removed a massive Chinese influence operation from its platforms that had targeted the US. Users in India and Tibet were targeted by some smaller networks.
Palermino sees TikTok Shop as a valuable tool for small businesses and says shuttering TikTok would have a negative short-term effect on Dieux. She says losing that would be challenging. While she’s confident Dieux could pivot to focus on other platforms, she suspects a TikTok ban could seriously impact other independent and up-and-coming brands within the United States in a big way. “It will hurt their business.”
The Senate faces an uncertain future, so it must clear it before President Biden signs the law. Several other anti-TikTok efforts in the Senate have stalled, and it is too soon to tell whether the House’s legislation will meet a different fate.
The Security Threat of TikTok: Why the U.S. Senate and China aren’t Using Virtual Private Networks to Disclose Social Media
Legal experts say shutting down a social media platform in the name of national security is something that can only be accomplished if the security threat is overwhelming, thereby justifying a restriction of online speech.
There is no way to make TikTok disappear for the 170 million Americans who have already downloaded it. But removing TikTok from app stores would mean that users would not be able to download any further software updates. Without the ability to update frequently, the app would be buggy, slow, and rife with other problems that would make it impossible to use it.
And even if the Senate passes a companion bill, and Biden signs it into law, there is a six-month deadline to sell, which could be prolonged by court challenges.
People could turn to virtual private networks, or VPNs, to shield their location and get past restrictions. The technique is very popular in places such as Russia and China, where it’s not legal to use internet services.
This is why national security officials in Washington, who have been investigating TikTok’s ties to Beijing for five years, have not approved the plan.