House Commerce Will Markup TikTok Bills Thursday

The House Commerce Committee on Thursday will mark up two national security-related bills targeting TikTok, including one from Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J.

The Rodgers-Pallone measure seeks a ban on data broker deals with Chinese-owned entities like TikTok, which mirrors the intent of an executive order from President Joe Biden that he signed last week (see 2402280075). Announcing a Thursday legislative hearing and a markup, Rogers said she seeks decisive action that will ensure China can’t target, surveil and manipulate Americans through social media apps like TikTok. However, Pallone issued a separate statement expressing concern about how the bill was drafted, and the process Republicans have laid out this week. In a joint statement with Rodgers, he called the bill a "common sense step forward" and said he looks forward to advancing it.

In addition, the committee will consider a separate bipartisan bill that would effectively force TikTok parent company ByteDance to divest the social media app so the app can continue operating in the U.S. House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party Chair Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., introduced the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (HR-7521). The bill would ban distribution of ByteDance-owned apps unless it divests.

TikTok said in a statement Tuesday that HR-7521 is “an outright ban of TikTok, no matter how much the authors try to disguise it.” The bill will “trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs,” the company said.

Rodgers and Pallone's bill, the Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act (HR-7520), would ban brokers from transferring “sensitive data” from American consumers to “foreign adversaries.” The FTC would enforce the new law under its unfair and deceptive trade practices authority. Data brokers would face fines of up to $50,000 per violation. Sensitive types of data include data related to government IDs, health, finances, biometrics, geolocation and private communications. The bill would apply to entities controlled by individuals and companies located in countries on the State Department’s foreign adversaries list: China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela.

Pallone said he has “serious national security concerns” about TikTok and is “sympathetic” to the intent of his bill with Rodgers. But he’s “still reviewing the bill itself and [has] not made any final decisions yet.” This isn’t the bill “I would have crafted or the process I would have implemented if Democrats were in the Majority,” he said in a statement to us. "It’s critical that we provide members of the Committee with the opportunity to hear from experts and review the proposals before we vote on the bill.”

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr lauded the committee’s inclusion of HR-7521. TikTok was caught engaging in a pattern of “illicit surveillance” and “false statements” about Beijing’s access to user data, he said in a statement. TikTok’s conduct and relationship with ByteDance make it an unacceptable threat to national security, he added. The bill from Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi would “definitively resolve” TikTok’s national security threats by forcing its separation from ByteDance. Carr said he hopes it will “soon become law.”

The bill is co-sponsored by 18 other House members, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, including Reps. Bob Latta, R-Ohio; Kathy Castor, D-Fla.; Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., and Jake Auchincloss, D-Mass. “America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States,” said Gallagher. “TikTok’s time in the United States is over unless it ends its relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance.” The bill ensures the president has the tools to force the divestiture, said Krishnamoorthi. The bill states the president would use an interagency process to identify companies for forced sales.

Forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok would “preserve the ability of Americans to continue using the popular platform while having their privacy rights protected and without allowing further” influence from the Chinese government, House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chairman Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., said in a statement Tuesday.