The Bill That Could Ban TikTok Just Passed the House … in a Landslide

The House of Representatives has advanced a bill that could effectively ban TikTok within the United States. The legislation will now advance to the Senate, where it will likely face a steeper road to adoption.

The bill, titled the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, would require TikTok to sever itself completely from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a potential ban from mobile app stores and web-hosting services. The bill would also create a process through which the president can designate certain social media applications with ties to foreign governments as a national security risk.

Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled lower chamber overwhelmingly supported the legislation, with 352 representatives voting in favor of the act, and just 65 opposing it. The vote breakdown contained little rhyme or reason in terms of party alignment, a rarity considering the months of partisan paralysis in the House.

Despite being supported by President Joe Biden and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), several prominent Democrats voted no — including Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Among Republicans, opposition from former President Donald Trump seems to have moved some die-hard MAGA sycophants like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to vote no, while others, like House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), voted yes.

“This is not an attempt to ban TikTok; it’s an attempt to make TikTok better,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said during floor debate ahead of the vote. “Tic-Tac-Toe, a winner.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who indicated on Tuesday that he would oppose the bill, told the chamber that “either intentionally or unintentionally this legislation to ban TikTok is actually a Trojan horse” and that “some of us are concerned that there are First Amendment implications here … some of us just don’t want the president picking which apps we can put on our phones or which websites we can visit.”

Lawmakers have long sought to place restrictions on TikTok, accusing the app and its parent company ByteDance of exploiting American user data on behalf of the Chinese government. Many Republicans, often the fiercest critics of Chinese influence in the U.S., chose to vote against the bill following opposition from Trump. The former president unsuccessfully attempted to ban the app while in office. Trump has now done a 180, telling CNBC on Monday that while there’s “a lot of good and a lot of bad with TikTok … without TikTok you can make Facebook bigger — and I consider Facebook to be the enemy of the people along with a lot of the media.”

Conservative billionaire Jeff Yass, a prominent donor to the Republican Club for Growth and a large stakeholder in TikTok, has also been directing overtures to members of Congress in opposition to the legislation, and recently met with the former president at Mar-a-Lago.

As previously reported by Rolling Stone, Trump and some of his advisers may also feel that taking a soft approach to TikTok could boost his profile with young voters and contrast him with Biden — who promised to sign the legislation should it reach his desk.

A Biden administration spokesperson added to Rolling Stone ahead of the vote that foreign powers can use the app to influence “Americans’ views and beliefs.” The warning echoes comments made by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre last week. The administration doesn’t “see this as banning these apps — that’s not what this is,” she said, but rather “ensuring that their ownership isn’t in the hands of those who may do us harm.”

More from Rolling Stone

• Mike Pence Won't Endorse Guy Who Sent an Angry Mob After Him 

• Judge Lets Fani Willis Stay on Trump Case Despite 'Lapse in Judgement'

• Israel Lobby Pushes Lie That People Are Not Starving in Gaza: Report

Best of Rolling Stone

• The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign

• Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal

• The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence