March 13, 2024
The U.S. House of Representatives March 13 voted 352-65 to ban the use and distribution of the TikTok social media app in the United States unless the platform is sold by its Chinese owner ByteDance. The bill (H.R.7521), which required a two-thirds vote majority to pass, now goes to the U.S. Senate for ratification.
The legislation prohibits distributing, maintaining, or providing internet hosting services for a foreign adversary-controlled application (i.e. Beijing-ByteDance). However, the prohibition does not apply to an app that is primarily used to post product reviews, business reviews, or travel information and reviews.
The bill authorizes the Department of Justice to investigate violations of the bill and enforce the bill’s provisions. Entities that violate the bill are subject to civil penalties based on the number of users.
TikTok, which has an estimated 102.3 million monthly users in the United States, allegedly affords the Chinese government inside access to millions of American social media accounts, which the government deems a national security threat.
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The bill requires that any TikTok user in the U.S. be able to access all available personal account data (including posts, photos, and videos) at the user’s request before the ban takes effect.
The bill gives the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia exclusive jurisdiction over any challenge to the bill. Further, a challenge to the bill must be brought within 165 days after the bill’s enactment date. A challenge to any action, finding, or determination under the bill must be brought with 90 days of the action, finding or determination.
Notably, the House vote undermines former president and current GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s effort to save TikTok. As president, Trump had sought to ban TikTok, but now claims doing so would embolden Facebook.
“There’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad with TikTok. But the thing I don’t like is that without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people along with a lot of the media,” Trump told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on March 11.
E-Marketer contends a ban of TikTok in the U.S. would result in Facebook owner Meta taking between 22.5% and 27.5% of TikTok’s U.S. ad revenue. The research firm estimated the ban would also benefit Google-owned YouTube with a revenue bump between $1.74 billion and $1.94 billion due to TikTok leaving the U.S. market.
“While there are plausible reasons to believe Meta’s Facebook and Instagram could see increased ad revenue following a hypothetical TikTok ban in the U.S., the actual outcome would depend on a range of market, regulatory, and competitive responses,” Jeremy Goldman, senior director of the marketing, retail, and tech briefings at Insider Intelligence, wrote in a blog post.
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