House passes bill that could lead to US ban of TikTok

House lawmakers have passed a bill that could ban TikTok for users in the US.

It’s not yet clear what the fate of the measure will be in the Senate.

The vote was 352-65 with 15 Republicans and 50 Democrats voting in opposition. One Democrat voted present.

Passage of the bill through the GOP-controlled House comes as former President Donald Trump has signaled opposition to a ban.

The bill would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform — used by roughly 170 million Americans — is spun off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

This is a breaking news story, we will bring you the latest updates as we get them.

The US House of Representatives voted on legislation that could ban TikTok on Wednesday, a major challenge to one of the world’s most popular social media apps used by 170 million Americans, unless it part ways with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

The House passed a bill Wednesday that could ban the video-based social media app TikTok, but the legislation’s fate is less than clear in the US Senate, where there is no companion bill.

A bill needs to pass in both the House and the Senate before it would be sent to the president to be signed into law.

The Democratic chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell, has made no firm commitment to advance the proposal.

“I will be talking to my Senate and House colleagues to try to find a path forward that is constitutional and protects civil liberties,” Cantwell said in a statement to CNN last week.

And on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wouldn’t commit to holding a vote on the House bill.

Some background on attempts to limit the app: Last year, Senate lawmakers proposed legislation clamping down on TikTok but triggered concerns that it could give the executive branch too much power.

Efforts to ban TikTok date back to the Trump administration, which used a series of executive orders to try to force app stores not to offer TikTok and to compel ByteDance to spin off the company.

Those efforts also stalled amid legal challenges, though it led TikTok to engage in negotiations with the US government about how it could secure Americans’ personal data. Those talks are ongoing, even as TikTok has moved to store US user data on US-based servers controlled by the tech giant Oracle.

The US House of Representatives is set to vote on legislation that would ban TikTok, a major challenge to one of the world’s most popular social media apps used by 170 million Americans, unless it part ways with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

Lawmakers who support Wednesday’s bill say China’s intelligence laws could allow it to force ByteDance — TikTok’s parent company — to hand over TikTok’s user data. That data could allegedly be useful to China for identifying intelligence targets or engaging in disinformation campaigns.

That characterization of China’s intelligence laws is broadly accurate, according to cybersecurity and China experts.

But, they add, the allegations about TikTok as a national security risk remain a hypothetical. The US government has not publicly detailed any specific claim that China has actually accessed TikTok user data.

The US House floor shortly before lawmakers began voting on a bill that could ban TikTok on Wednesday.

Voting is underway on the House’s bill that could ban the video-based social media app TikTok.

The ban would pose a major challenge to one of the world’s most popular social media apps used by 170 million Americans, unless it parts ways with its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

If successful, TikTok would have about five months to separate from ByteDance, or app stores across the US would be banned from hosting it on their platforms.

The vote is happening under an expedited process that requires a two-thirds majority for passage, which means it is likely to pass with widespread bipartisan support.

It’s not yet clear what the fate of the measure will be in the Senate. President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill if it makes it to his desk.

We’ll bring you the latest updates on the vote as we get them here.

CNN’s Clare Foran, Haley Talbot and Kristin Wilson contributed reporting to this post.

Even as House lawmakers debate a broader TikTok ban, the federal government and more than half of US states have already clamped down on the app on official devices.

A CNN analysis last year found that 33 states had taken action to restrict the app on government-owned electronics.

Government agencies are viewed as having more leeway to regulate devices under their direct control. But imposing restrictions on private citizens can raise First Amendment concerns.

Summer Lucille.

Summer Lucille, a content creator with over 1.4 million followers on her @JuicyBodyGoddess TikTok account, said how lawmakers vote for the bill that could ban TikTok in the US would directly influence who she casts her ballot for in November.

The bill would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform — used by roughly 170 million Americans — is spun off from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance.

It would give ByteDance roughly five months to sell TikTok. If not divested by that time, it would be illegal for app store operators such as Apple and Google to make it available for download.

Lucille said the social media platform “changed my life forever” and has attracted people from all over the US to visit her brick-and-mortar store.

When asked how her business would change if TikTok were owned by an American entity instead of a Chinese company, Lucille responded:

She said she doesn’t have any concerns about possible Chinese government influence.

A floor debate over the TikTok legislation has now begun, marking a prelude to the eventual House vote expected at 10 a.m. ET.

Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, a lead co-sponsor of the bill and the ranking member of a House select committee on China, urged his colleagues to support the legislation.

Some lawmakers are announcing their position on the bill through videos posted on TikTok, meanwhile.

California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, published a video of a prior television appearance in which he advocated for a national data privacy law that would govern not just TikTok but all tech platforms.

“I will be voting NO on the bill to ban TikTok,” the caption on the video said.

New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman posted a TikTok video recorded from the halls of Congress and directly addressing the app’s users.

“My colleagues are trying to ban TikTok, which is crazy,” Bowman said in the video. “They’re doing it because of your pressure, because of your organizing, because of your good work.”

Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testifies at a hearing with the House Select Intelligence Committee in the Cannon Office Building on March 12 in Washington, DC.

US intelligence officials cannot rule out the possibility that the Chinese government will use TikTok to influence the 2024 US elections, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers on Tuesday. 

Haines’ comments — in response to a question from a lawmaker during a House Intelligence Committee hearing — comes as US intelligence agencies raised concerns about the reported use of the TikTok in the 2022 US midterm elections in their Annual Threat Assessment report published on Monday. 

Tuesday’s testimony before the House panel by senior US intelligence officials came ahead of a high-stakes vote on Wednesday when the Republican-controlled House is slated to consider a bill that would force TikTok to divest from Chinese parent firm ByteDance or face a nationwide ban. 

 US national security officials are preparing for a divisive 2024 US election in which multiple foreign adversaries — from China to Russia to Iran — could try to use social media platforms to interfere with or influence the vote.  

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump at a Super Tuesday election night party on March 5 at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla.

Former President Donald Trump has sent mixed messages about his stance on a potential TikTok ban.

When president, he supported calls to ban the app — but appears to have backed away from that stance.

In a post on Truth Social last week, Trump expressed opposition to a ban, arguing that if TikTok were out of the picture, Facebook would benefit. He said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was an “Enemy of the People.”

In a Monday interview with CNBC, Trump said it was a “tough decision” whether to ban TikTok and argued that getting rid of it would benefit Meta, adding that he thought “Facebook has been very bad for our country.”

Trump said he thought TikTok posed a national security threat to the US but added, “You have that problem with Facebook and lots of other companies too.”

Wang Wenbin, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, speaks at a press conference in Beijing, China, on March 13.

China said Wednesday that banning TikTok would backfire on the US.

The comments by China’s foreign ministry came hours before a House vote on legislation that would force Tiktok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to sell the short video platform or face being banned in the US, where it boasts over 170 million users.

Lawmakers who want to see the bill passed argue it poses a national security threat because China could use its intelligence laws against ByteDance and force it to hand over US user data.

Wang accused the US of “resorting to acts of bullying” when it could not succeed in fair competitions, saying such practice would disrupt market operations, undermine investor confidence and sabotage the global economic and trade order.

As House lawmakers prepared to vote, TikTok encouraged users to call their representatives with a full-screen notification about the legislation.

TikTok CEO Shou Chew has tried to schedule 11th-hour meetings with members of Congress. The company sent letters to two lawmakers on Monday challenging their characterizations of TikTok’s call-to-action campaign as “offensive” and “patently false.”

TikTok has said that banning the app would harm 5 million businesses that rely on the platform.

CNN’s Brian Fung contributed reporting to this post.

The House will vote on a bill that could lead to a nationwide TikTok ban.

The bill would give the app’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, five months to sell TikTok. If not divested in time, it would be illegal for app stores to make it available for download — affecting 170 million American users.

Lawmakers who want to see the bill passed argue it poses a national security threat because China could use its intelligence laws against ByteDance and force it to hand over US user data.

Hours before the House vote, China warned the bill would backfire on the US.

Rep. Robert Garcia speaks at a news conference on TikTok on March 12, in Washington, DC.

Some House Democrats said Tuesday that banning TikTok will have negative consequences beyond the freedom of expression, and urged their colleagues to vote against the bill when it comes up for a vote on Wednesday.

Garcia said singling out TikTok wasn’t fair – and that there is disinformation on all social media sites. The classified briefing that House members received Tuesday did nothing to change his mind, he said.

Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost, a Democrat, declared himself “not only am I a no on tomorrow’s TikTok ban bill, but I’m a hell no.”

Members were joined by TikTok creators, who have been pressuring Congress to vote against the bill.

Teddy Siegel created a TikTok account that aims to map all the publicly accessible toilets in the city.

Walking around Times Square one day in 2021, Teddy Siegel came to the sudden and horrifying realization that’s befallen many a New York City visitor: She had to pee, and there was nowhere to go.

Siegel began ducking into stores and shops, pleading with rising desperation to use their private restrooms, until finally finding a McDonald’s that let her use the restroom in exchange for making a purchase.

To remember the bathroom’s location for next time, Siegel took a video of the McDonald’s and saved it to her phone. Thus was born @Got2GoNYC, a TikTok account that aims to map all the publicly accessible toilets in the city.

Siegel’s brand of open, self-deprecating humor and her all-too-relatable outrage over a universal human experience has helped her reach more than 185,000 followers on the app and roughly half a million followers across multiple platforms.

Siegel says Congress is threatening to undermine her mission to document a real public health issue — the lack of available restrooms in public spaces — and to help people from around the world find relief fast.

Siegel is one of a diverse group of TikTok creators speaking out against what they see as an unreasonable restriction on their speech and economic activity, highlighting how some of the platform’s users are vocally at odds with legislation US officials say will block the risk of spying by the Chinese government.

Read more about how TikTok creators are reacting to the possible app ban.

Passengers use smartphones while sitting on a platform of a railway station in Mumbai, India, in February 2020.

While some countries – including the US, UK, New Zealand and Australia – have placed restrictions on the use of TikTok on devices issued to government workers, there is an outright ban on the app in a few other countries.

Many Western countries that have banned the Chinese-owned app from government employees phones argue it presents a security concern. They are worried China could use its national security laws to access the significant amount of personal information that TikTok, like most social media applications, collects from its US users.

The European Union launched a formal investigation last month into TikTok to determine whether the company is doing enough to protect minors on its platform as well as examine other suspected violations of the bloc’s landmark Digital Services Act.

“The opening of proceedings means that the (European) Commission will investigate TikTok’s functionalities, systems and policies related to certain suspected infringements. It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation,” a spokesperson for the bloc’s executive arm said in a statement.

The commission will assess whether the company, which is owned by China’s ByteDance, is complying with requirements for large social media platforms to mitigate the risk of users becoming addicted to their content and to safeguard minors’ privacy and safety.

TikTok’s age verification tools, aimed at preventing children from accessing inappropriate content, “may not be reasonable, proportionate and effective,” the European Commission said in a news release.

Social media companies operating in the EU are bound by obligations set out in the Digital Services Act, enacted in August, which places stricter requirements on large tech companies — defined as those with more than 45 million monthly users in the bloc — and seeks to protect people’s rights online. TikTok has almost 136 million monthly active users in the EU, according to the European Commission

The U.S. Capitol Building is seen on January 10 in Washington, DC.

TikTok escalated its feud with House lawmakers this week as it accused two Republicans and a Democrat of mischaracterizing the company’s call-to-action campaign aimed at TikTok users, blasting certain claims by the members of Congress as “offensive” and “patently false.”

TikTok also sought to turn the tables on lawmakers, highlighting how many of the TikTok users flooding House offices with phone calls are the members’ own constituents.

TikTok’s advocacy campaign features a full-screen notification within the TikTok app urging users to call their representatives and to oppose a bill that could force a nationwide ban. That legislation is slated for a House floor vote on Wednesday.

Rep. Maxwell Frost speaks at a news conference on TikTok on March 12 in Washington, DC. 

Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, the first Gen Z congressman, warned Tuesday that President Joe Biden potentially signing into law a bill that could ban TikTok wouldn’t be helpful as the president tries to court younger voters. 

He added that he believes Congress should address the potential risks posed by TikTok as well as other social media companies, but argued that the TikTok legislation is being “steamrolled” through Congress. 

“So I’m not sure this is the way to go. And the way it was steamrolled through Congress here,” Frost said. “A lot of my colleagues don’t fully understand what they’re voting on tomorrow, either. Okay, so I just think that this we’re moving too fast and something that’s going to have drastic impacts for people in this country.”

House Republicans are moving forward with a vote on the bill set for Wednesday despite Donald Trump having signaled some uneasiness over the legislation that would ban the app unless it part ways with its Chinese parent company.

House Republicans are pressing ahead with a Wednesday floor vote on legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States unless it part ways with its Chinese parent company, even as former President Donald Trump has signaled some uneasiness over the legislation.

House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers expressed confidence the measure would pass and downplayed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s opposition, noting he previously supported the idea of cracking down on the app.

Still, there’s been a behind-the-scenes effort by bill supporters to launch a counter-campaign in response to TikTok’s lobbying blitz against the legislation. That included scheduling a classified briefing for all House members at 1 p.m. Tuesday about the app’s potential national security threat.

McMorris Rodgers also gave a briefing on the bill during a House GOP whip meeting on Monday night, though leadership is not formally whipping the bill, which will come up under suspension of the rules – an expedited process that requires a two-thirds majority for passage.

Nadya Okamoto attends the "Dead Ringers" world premiere at Metrograph on April 3, 2023 in New York City.

TikTok – and some of its users – are pulling out all the stops to contest a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban of the app.

As House lawmakers prepare to vote on the bill Wednesday, TikTok is encouraging users to call their representatives with a full-screen notification about the legislation. The company’s CEO, Shou Chew, has attempted to schedule 11th-hour meetings with members of Congress. It sent letters to two lawmakers on Monday challenging their characterizations of TikTok’s call-to-action campaign as “offensive” and “patently false.”

And TikTok claims that banning the app would harm 5 million businesses that rely on the platform.

One of those businesses belongs to Nadya Okamoto, a TikTok creator with more than 4 million followers and whose brand of menstruation products, August, is carried by national retailers including Target. (TikTok connected Okamoto with CNN.)

Okamoto’s TikTok account features videos on women’s health, sex education and the occasional glimpse into her personal life. She’s launched product collaborations with major brands such as the trendy footwear company Hoka. Her sisters are TikTok creators in their own right, one of whom is using her income from TikTok to pay her own way through college, Okamoto said.

TikTok’s heavy emphasis on the For You page makes it far easier for brands like August to reach new audiences compared to other apps, Okamoto said. “They’re primarily looking at content from people they don’t necessarily follow already. And so, as a business, that is a very unique thing.”

Okamoto, who is Asian-American, also suspects that running beneath the anti-TikTok rhetoric is a strain of fear and racism, echoing many other Asian-Americans who have looked on with growing alarm.

Read more about how creators are worried about the House vote.

House lawmakers are moving with dizzying speed with a plan that could ban TikTok from the United States.

In two days last week, a key House committee introduced and approved a bill targeting TikTok. The full House is set to vote on it Wednesday, and the White House says President Joe Biden is prepared to sign it.

But could a TikTok ban really happen? And what makes this proposal different from the other times policymakers have tried to clamp down on the video-sharing app used by 170 million Americans?

Here’s everything you need to know about the hot-button legislation.

What would the bill do?

If enacted, the bill would give TikTok roughly five months to separate from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, or else app stores in the United States would be prohibited from hosting the app on their platforms.

It doesn’t stop there. The bill lays out similar restrictions for any app allegedly controlled by foreign adversaries, such as China, Iran, Russia or North Korea. And it sets up a process for Biden — or any future president — to identify apps that should be banned under the legislation.

App stores that violate the legislation could be fined based on the number of users of a banned app. The bill establishes fines of $5,000 per user of a banned app. So in the case of TikTok, Apple and Google could potentially be on the hook for up to $850 billion in fines each.

What is TikTok saying?

TikTok is calling the legislation an attack on the First Amendment rights of its users. It launched a call-to-action campaign within its app, urging users to call their representatives in Washington to oppose the bill. Multiple congressional offices say they’ve been flooded with calls.

“The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression,” TikTok said in a statement. “This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”

Read more about the push to ban TikTok.