Key Senator Backs TikTok Divestiture After Winning Concession

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., announced late April 17 that she supports a newly modified House proposal that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless China’s ByteDance divested the popular social media application.

Cantwell, whose panel has jurisdiction over the legislation, said in a statement that House leaders have accepted her recommendation to give ByteDance more time to complete the divestiture. Instead of the six-month deadline in the original House-passed bill (see 2403130051), ByteDance would have up to a year to finish the transaction.

Cantwell said that “extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done.” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said last month that it could be challenging to assemble potential buyers, as the sale price might exceed $100 billion (see 2403150042).

Proponents of the divestiture requirement say the Chinese government can use TikTok to spread dangerous propaganda and gain access to U.S. users' personal information. TikTok counters that the potential ban on the app would trample free-speech rights.

The modified TikTok proposal is included in wide-ranging legislation that House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, unveiled late on April 17 to “confront the generational threat posed by the unholy alliance of Russia, China and Iran.”

McCaul’s 184-page bill, the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act, contains the Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity (REPO) for Ukrainians Act, which would authorize seizing frozen Russian central bank assets in the U.S. to help rebuild Ukraine (see 2401240069).

The bill also “includes the most comprehensive sanctions against Iran Congress has passed in years,” McCaul said. It would sanction ports and refineries that receive and process Iranian oil; sanction anyone involved in the supply, sale, transfer or support of Iran's drones and missiles; and fully enforce human rights sanctions on the Iranian regime.

The bill would further restrict the export or re-export to Iran of U.S.-origin technology that can be used to make drones and missiles. Other provisions would sanction Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, reauthorize and strengthen the Sanctioning the Use of Civilians as Defenseless Shields Act of 2018; and sanction people in Syria who traffic the stimulant drug Captagon (see 2404160073).

The bill includes the Senate-passed Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act, which would require the president to sanction transnational criminal organizations and key cartel members engaged in international fentanyl trafficking (see 2401110042 and 2401110042).

McCaul said his bill is supported by his committee's Republican majority. The House Rules Committee met April 18 to consider how the full House will take up McCaul's bill, as well as three bills that would provide aid to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine.