US lawmakers are reviving the campaign to ban TikTok

While the vast majority of US states will lose an hour with Spring Forward this weekend, many Americans could soon find themselves with an extra several hours per day if some lawmakers have their way. 

On Tuesday evening, a bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a White House-backed bill that would ban TikTok from all US devices if Chinese tech giant ByteDance doesn’t sell the platform.

• The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok. And if the platform isn’t sold by then, US app stores would be outlawed from offering TikTok or providing any web hosting services for the platform.
• Both the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House’s select China committee are among the 19 lawmakers who introduced the measure, with the Biden admin also signaling its support for the bill’s passage in Congress. Their actions stem from national security concerns over TikTok’s Chinese ownership.
• TikTok officials are pushing back against the proposed legislation, saying it would violate the First Amendment rights of the 170+ million Americans who use their platform.

This isn’t the US government’s first rodeo when it comes to TikTok bans. Former President Trump issued an executive order in 2020 banning new downloads of TikTok due to national security concerns, though the measure was later blocked by a federal court. And last year, the Senate introduced legislation that would have granted the White House new powers to ban TikTok, but the bill never came to a vote following lobbying efforts from TikTok.

Lawmakers' actions run counter to recent trends in public sentiment. The share of American adults who support a US government ban on TikTok declined from 50% to 38% between March and December of last year, according to Pew Research.

👀 Looking ahead… The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a vote on the proposed TikTok bill at a hearing later today. If approved (which is expected), the bill would head to the full House for a future vote – though it would also require companion legislation in the Senate before becoming law.