The Senate is expected to vote on a proposal that would prevent ByteDance from operating TikTok in the United States, but before it does, it may air its findings in public. Several Senators, including Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Mark Warner (D-VA), have suggested that U.S. legislators should hold a hearing to discuss the threat TikTok poses to American consumers.
The proposed ban would be enforced through a bill co-authored by Congressmen Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL). Beijing-based ByteDance could avoid a U.S. ban by divesting TikTok so that the app’s parent company would no longer possess ties to a “foreign adversary” like China. When Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi’s bill passed in the House of Representatives, the Department of Justice indicated that it would prefer to push for a divestiture rather than an outright TikTok ban.
One of the biggest issues the bill faces is the general public. As politicians across the United States have mounted legal challenges against TikTok, the app has turned to its community for support. A double-pronged lawsuit from TikTok and its creators challenged a controversial ban in Montana. At the federal level, regulatory efforts have received pushback from creators like Aidan Kohn-Murphy, who have told Congress that TikTok “is not a children’s dancing app.”
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Resistance from TikTok users has ramped up since the House passed Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi’s proposal. Representative Jeff Jackson lost more than 200,000 subscribers — and was branded as a hypocrite — after voting for the bill even though he runs a successful TikTok account of his own. Many TikTok users have also called their representatives after a message on the app prompted them to do so.
A public hearing could allow legislators and TikTok defenders to find common ground. Senator Warner, who co-authored a previous attempt to regulate TikTok, recently argued that ordinary Americans deserve access to some of classified documents that have informed Congress’ decisions. “We’ve got still some education to do — to members and, frankly, the public,” Warner said. Though he noted that the House was quick to approve the latest proposal, he added that he’s “not sure the Senate has got that same kind of timetable.”
Senator Cantwell, who retooled Warner’s RESTRICT Act last year, also stressed that the Senate must not rush a vote. “It’s important to get it right,” Cantwell said. “The key point is to get a tool that can be used to stop foreign actors from doing deleterious things that might harm US citizens, or US military or the US government. So we’re gonna do that. We’re gonna get it done. And we’re not going to take forever.”
So far, no Senator has shared a potential timeline for a public hearing. But the effects of the TikTok community’s rabble-rousing are clear: The app’s users seem to have bought it some time.
