House passes bill aiming to force TikTok to end Chinese ownership

March 13 (UPI) -- A bill that would ban TikTok from U.S. app stores unless it is sold off by Chinese company ByteDance was passed by the House on Wednesday.

The measure passed by a 352-65 vote.

"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," Senate Select Committee on Intelligence leaders Mark Warner, D-Va., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in a statement.

At the heart of the bill is the belief among supportive lawmakers that it poses a national security threat to the United States because data collected by the app on roughly 170 million American users could be accessed by the Chinese government.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has not committed to taking up the bill in the Senate.

TikTok opposed the bill and said in a statement it will now focus on the Senate.

"We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents and realize the impact on the economy, 7 million small businesses and the 170 million Americans who use our service," TikTok said.

President Joe Biden said he intends to sign the legislation if Congress passes it.

Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., who voted against the bill, said "it is not the role of government to ban apps from the app store."

"Nowhere in the Constitution does it say that," she said.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., who represents parts of Silicon Valley, voted against the bill, citing a First Amendment concern. But he also expressed concern about American data security and called for an Internet privacy bill.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the Senate will likely take up the House bill but amend it.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that TikTok poses a national security threat.

"Americans need to ask themselves whether they want to give the Chinese government the ability to control access to their data, whether they want to give the Chinese government the ability to control the information they get through the recommendation algorithm," Wray said.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., Chair of a House select committee on China disputes that the bipartisan bill amounts to a ban. He calls it a divestiture.

"What the bill does is give TikTok a simple choice," Gallagher wrote on X. "Either side with its users...and allow people to speak free from the fear of propaganda or censorship, or side with the Chinese Communist Party."

He said the bill addresses national security issues while still protecting Americans' free speech rights.

TikTok opposes the bill that would give ByteDance 165 days to spin off the app.

"This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban of TikTok in the United States," the Chinese-owned company said in a statement on X prior to the House vote. "The government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression."

TikTok CEO Shou Chew last year testified to Congress that the app doesn't share user information with the Chinese government even as he acknowledged that TikTok collected American user data in the past and some of it was still on servers ByteDance could access.

Former President Donald Trump signed an executive order during his time in office that would have banned TikTok from U.S. app stores but it was blocked by a federal judge as ByteDance sued, arguing the ban violates the First Amendment.

Trump, who is running for re-election in November, has since altered his stance, maintaining that TikTok poses a national security threat but saying banning the app would benefit Meta and its flagship Facebook platform.