Bill that could lead to TikTok ban gets potential new path to becoming law soon

By Victor Reklaitis

A key senator now backs the House bill after a change. The revised measure is part of an aid package that's due for a House vote on Saturday.

The prospects may have improved this week for a bipartisan House bill that could lead to a nationwide ban for TikTok, as a key Democratic senator voiced her support for the measure following a change to it.

The bill, which is due for a fresh vote in the House of Representatives on Saturday, aims to ban TikTok in the U.S. if the video-sharing app continues to be controlled by its Chinese parent company, ByteDance Ltd. The bill had originally included a provision requiring ByteDance to divest from TikTok within six months, but House Speaker Mike Johnson and other top House Republicans have tweaked the legislation to stretch the deadline for selling to a year.

That change has prompted Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington state, to back the measure.

Earlier this month, Cantwell had told reporters the House measure "could be better." That had helped fuel expectations that the Senate wouldn't move quickly on a TikTok ban after the House approved the earlier version of the legislation in mid-March.

Johnson has included the updated TikTok legislation in his proposed aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other allies, which the Louisiana Republican is trying to get passed on Saturday.

The speaker's moves have created a "new avenue" for the TikTok bill to pass in the near term, analysts at TD Cowen said in a note.

"If passed, the bill would then go to the Senate, which would need to accept or reject the package as a whole," the analysts wrote. "Even if it fails, we see [a] 65% chance it becomes law this year via other must-pass vehicles."

The development is positive for companies with rival social-media platforms, such as Meta Platforms Inc. (META), Snap Inc. (SNAP) and Alphabet Inc.'s (GOOG) (GOOGL) Google business, according to TD Cowen's team.

President Joe Biden has promised to sign the TikTok bill into law if it clears both chambers of Congress. Supporters of the measure have argued that the popular app is a threat to national security and have raised data-privacy concerns around it.

A TikTok spokesperson has said the U.S. government is "attempting to trample the free-speech rights of 170 million Americans and devastate 7 million small businesses nationwide." Beyond TikTok's own lobbying efforts, the Chinese Embassy has held meetings with congressional staffers to lobby against the legislation, according to a Politico report on Tuesday that cited unnamed staffers.

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican White House nominee, flip-flopped on a TikTok ban last month, saying he no longer supports a ban because it would benefit Meta's Facebook platform, which he characterized as "an enemy of the people."

-Victor Reklaitis

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04-18-24 1106ET

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