The US House of Representatives passed legislation on Wednesday requiring ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, to sell the social media platform or risk a total ban in the US.

The vote received 352 Congress members' approval, and only 65 voted no. 

The law, which was expedited to a vote after being unanimously approved by a committee last week, provides China-based ByteDance with 165 days to withdraw from TikTok. If it did not, app shops such as the Apple App Store and Google Play would be legally prohibited from hosting TikTok or offering web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.

The vote is the latest in an ongoing political struggle over claims that the China-based business collects sensitive user data and deliberately censors material. TikTok has frequently declared that it does not and will not share US user data with the Chinese authorities.

Despite these concerns, Donald Trump sought to prohibit TikTok in 2020, and Montana passed a state-wide ban in 2023. Both bans were overturned by courts on the basis that they violated the First Amendment, and Trump has subsequently switched his position, now opposing a TikTok ban.

In March 2023, the Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) recommended that ByteDance sell their TikTok shares or face the app being banned, according to Reuters, but no action was taken.

The bill's fate is less assured in the Senate. Some Senate Democrats have vocally opposed the bill, citing free speech issues, and have proposed solutions to address concerns about foreign influence on social media without expressly targeting TikTok. 

“We need curbs on social media, but we need those curbs to apply across the board,” according to Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Mark Warner, a Democratic senator who offered a different measure last year to grant the White House expanded powers over TikTok, said he had "some concerns about the constitutionality of an approach that names specific companies," but will take "a close look at this bill."

The White House has endorsed the measure, with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stating that the government wants "to see this bill get done so it can get to the president's desk."

The bill's authors claim it does not represent a ban since it allows ByteDance to sell TikTok without being prohibited in the US. Representative Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the House Select China Committee, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the panel's senior Democrat, have submitted legislation to address national security concerns raised by Chinese ownership of the app.

Following the bill's adoption by the committee, staffers claimed that TikTok fans inundated Congress with phone calls after the app sent out a notice asking users to reject the measure.

“Why are Members of Congress complaining about hearing from their constituents? Respectfully, isn’t that their job?,” TikTok posted on X.

China could use TikTok to 'influence' US elections, spy chief says

During a House of Representatives intelligence committee hearing, Avril Haines, the US director of national intelligence, claimed that China might leverage the social media app TikTok to impact the 2024 US elections.

In response to a question from Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi regarding whether China's ruling Communist Party (CCP) would use TikTok to influence the elections, Haines stated, "We cannot dismiss the possibility that the CCP would utilize it."

Lawmakers expressed concerns that the Chinese government could access user data or influence what content the users see, adding that they could be trying to "exacerbate political divisions within the United States."

Krishnamoorthi, the ranking Democrat on the House Select Committee on China, and the panel's Republican chair, Mike Gallagher, introduced a bill last week that would mandate that TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, divest the short video app within approximately six months.

It is worth noting that there are currently 170 million American users on TikTok.