Sens. Warner and Rubio cheer passage of House bill
The heads of the Senate Intelligence Committee applauded the House's passage of the bill, saying they looked forward to getting the legislation through their chamber.
"We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok — a platform with enormous power to influence and divide Americans whose parent company ByteDance remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a joint statement.
"We were encouraged by today’s strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, and look forward to working together to get this bill passed through the Senate and signed into law," the lawmakers added.
Warner is the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Rubio is its vice chairman.
Some no voters say Congress should pass a real data privacy law instead
Several representatives voting no have noted that the U.S. has no modern, comprehensive data privacy law, which could render moot concerns that ByteDance’s Chinese ownership means Americans’ data goes to that country’s intelligence services.
Such a law has long been a top priority for privacy advocates who say that while TikTok does hoover up basic information about American users, it’s no different from most apps in that sense.
Asked if he was concerned about the app’s connection to China, Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said, “I am concerned in terms of the data that American data should not be going to in those hands and that’s why we need an internet bill of privacy bill to protect Americans' data so that it does not go to the Communist Party in any way that would be the least restrictive way of doing it.”
Khanna, who represents parts of Silicon Valley, voted no on the bill and said he also worried it would hurt creators and could be a First Amendment violation.
No. 2 House Democrat votes against the bill
Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., who serves as the House minority whip, voted against the bill. It's notable because Jeffries, the top Democrat, supported it.
Marjorie Taylor Greene comes out against the TikTok bill
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., voiced her opposition to the TikTok bill in remarks on the floor, noting that her Twitter account was suspended in 2022 for repeatedly violating the platform’s Covid misinformation policy.
“This came on the heels of our own United States government working with Big Tech and working with social media companies to censor and ban Americans' free speech,” Greene said, referring to the suspension of her Twitter account in 2022.
Greene then argued that she believes the TikTok bill can “cause future problems” and likened a ban to “opening Pandora’s box.”
“What’s to stop Congress or the United States government in the future from forcing the sale of another social media company, claiming that it's protecting Americans' data from foreign adversaries?” she said.
While speaking to reporters on the steps of the Capitol, Greene denied that Trump’s recent opposition to the TikTok bill played a role in her decision to vote against it.
“I haven’t spoken to Donald Trump about the bill; these were my own conclusions. And I made the vote based on my own conclusions,” she said. “And by reading the bill myself, you know, he has his opinion on the bill and he can voice it. So it doesn’t mean that we’re all robots. We make our own decisions, and mine was to vote no on this bill.”
TikTok ban bill passes in the House
The House passed the bill in a 352-65 vote, with one member voting present. The measure now heads to the Senate.
Pelosi claims bill is 'an attempt to make TikTok better'
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., speaking on the House floor, claimed that the bill is "not an attempt to ban TikTok."
"It's an attempt to make TikTok better. Tic-tac-toe — a winner, a winner," Pelosi said, tapping a lectern for emphasis and slicing the air with her hand.
The vote isn't over, but the bill is on track to pass
Top House Intelligence Dem votes against ban
Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, voted against the bill. In a statement he said that in his role, "I have more insight than most into the online threats posed by our adversaries," but unlike them, the United States does not "shut down newspapers, broadcast stations, and social media platforms."
Strange bedfellows voting similarly on the bill
Members in each party are divided over the bill. For example, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., have joined Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., in opposing the measure.
Massie warns bill will have 'bad consequences'
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said during debate on the House floor that the legislation doesn't address the "root problems" concerning the potential invasion of Americans' privacy and said the proposal by lawmakers is not the right solution.
"In this case, their cure is worse than the diseases," he said.
Massie said Facebook will be the entity that benefits the most from this bill, opining that the company's stocks will increase. He said the legislation would be improved by a provision that sunsets the policy.
Massie also expressed concern that the ban will "be abused."
"This sounds like when American companies try to do business in Third World countries and a dictator says, well, you can do business here, you’ve just got to give me your company," he said.
Massie noted members of Congress are sitting in the House with Chinese-made phones, suits and cars they drove to work, suggesting it's hypocritical to vote in favor of the bill, and urged his colleagues to oppose the measure.