Some Fear Senate's Modifications of TikTok Bill May Doom It

Congress' sausage-making has Republicans concerned that moving slowly on the House's TikTok sell-or-ban legislation will doom its passage.

The House passed a bill to force TikTok's parent company ByteDance to sell the app within six months or face a potential deplatforming in the U.S. — a move that raised questions about American freedom, open markets, and governmental overreach.

But, still, having a widely popular social media entity in the hands of a company relegated to the Chinese Communist Party's forced technology transfer potentially imperials American privacy if not national security.

Proponents of the measure are concerned the Senate modifications of the bill to pass a slim Democrat majority might slow its passage, if not doom it altogether, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.

"The Senate should take up and pass the TikTok divestment bill asap," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, posted on X earlier this month.

But the bill is in the hands of Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who sources told the Journal is going to push for changes.

Those changes are hurdles for quick passage, if not a threat to sink it after the Easter recess, some fear, according to the Journal.

The Senate does want to address potential preemptive tweaks to avoid TikTok's likely legal challenges, adding language to make it less vulnerable to judiciary action against it. Among the potentially tweaks is extending the amount of time ByteDance has to sell.

The social media site is popular in America, too, making election year passage difficult. A recent poll by CNBC's All-America Economic Survey found support varied widely:

• 20% say TikTok should be banned no matter what.
• 27% said it should be banned unless it finds a new, non-Chinese owner.
• 31% said it should not be banned.

Aides told the Journal that Cantwell wants at least one hearing with her Senate Commerce Committee before voting to bring it to the Senate floor for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to weigh for a vote.

Even if the Senate passed a revised version, the slim GOP majority in the House would be difficult to whip up for votes to back what the Senate hands it.

"One of the things we have learned about tech legislation is that it needs to be narrow," one Commerce Committee member, Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told the Journal.

"What we do know, and what the briefing confirmed, is what we've long suspected: TikTok is basically spyware."

While TikTok says it neither has shared data with the Chinese government nor has been asked to do so, its owner, ByteDance, is subject to forced technology transfer.

Even Democrats are concerned about Big Government, which has tended to be more of a conservative concern.

Among them, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., told the Journal he has "a lot of concerns about targeting one company for violating standards that other apps and social-media companies have done as well."

Also in the mix is Democrats' wide use of the app to reach younger voters in election get-out-the-vote campaigns and the fact former Trump administration Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is talking about being a potential buyer of TikTok when and if it is forced to sell.

"We think the public ... should know that the government is attempting to trample the free-speech rights of 170 million Americans and devastate 7 million small businesses nationwide," TikTok spokeswoman Jodi Seth told the Journal.

• Mnuchin Has Big Plans for Rebuilding TikTok From Scratch
• WSJ: TikTok's Still Ticking, but Growth Is Ticking Down