Congress to vote on a bill that may lead to a TikTok ban
The TikTok logo is displayed outside a TikTok office on August 27, 2020 in Culver City, California. The Chinese-owned company is reportedly set to announce the sale of U.S. operations of its popular social media app in the coming weeks following thre
Congress is set to vote on a bill that may lead to a TikTok ban. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has scheduled a markup hearing for the bill on Thursday morning.
Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., signaled her support for legislative action against apps controlled by foreign adversaries like TikTok in announcing the hearing.
House lawmakers on Tuesday introduced a new bipartisan bill that would ban TikTok if its China-based parent company, ByteDance doesn't divest its stake in the social media platform, FOX Business reported.
RELATED: Montana lawmakers pass bill to ban TikTok statewide
The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would require that TikTok be divested from ByteDance or other China-based companies within 180 days or else it would be banned from U.S. app stores and web hosting services.
This bill would also set up a process to ban other social media apps controlled by foreign adversaries unless they cut ties with a foreign adversary-controlled company.
Additionally, the legislation would require designated social media apps to provide users with a copy of their data in a format that can be imported into another app when they leave the platform.
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FOX Business noted that the bill would be enforced against tech organizations that operate app stores or provide web hosting services rather than individual users of apps like TikTok.
In a statement provided to FOX Business, a TikTok spokesperson said "This bill is an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it. This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs."
Other states and the federal government have taken similar steps to limit the use of the app on government devices, and Montana in 2023 passed a complete ban, which was later put on hold before it could take effect by a federal judge who called it unconstitutional, the Associated Press reported.
FOX Business and the Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Washington, D.C.