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A year ago, I visited TikTok\u2019s US headquarters to preview its new \u201ctransparency center,\u201d a central piece of its multibillion-dollar effort to convince the US its meme factory isn\u2019t a <\/a>. That effort has failed. The company\u2019s negotiations with the government stalled out and the company is now facing its most serious threat to a future in the United States yet.<\/p>\n Last Wednesday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that, if passed into law, would force ByteDance to sell TikTok or face an outright ban in the US. That lawmakers view TikTok with suspicion is <\/a>. Because TikTok\u2019s parent company, ByteDance, is based in China, they believe the Chinese government could manipulate TikTok\u2019s algorithms or access its users\u2019 data via ByteDance employees. But what has been surprising about the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act is that it managed to gather so much support from both sides of the aisle seemingly out of nowhere.<\/p>\n After a surprise <\/a>, the bipartisan bill cleared committee in <\/a> with a unanimous 50 – 0 vote, and was approved by the full House in a 352 – 65 vote less than a week later. Of the dozens of bills attempting to regulate the tech industry in recent years, including <\/a> two <\/a> TikTok, none have gained nearly as much momentum.<\/p>\n But the renewed support for banning or forcing a sale of TikTok doesn\u2019t seem to be tied to any newly uncovered information about TikTok, ByteDance or the Chinese Communist Party. Instead, lawmakers have largely been rehashing the same concerns that have been raised about the app for years.<\/p>\n One issue often raised is data access. TikTok, like many of its social media peers, scoops up large amounts of data from its users. The practice has gotten the company into <\/a> in the past when many of those users were discovered to be minors. Many lawmakers cite its large cache of user data, which they claim could be obtained by Chinese government officials, as one of the most significant risks posed by TikTok.<\/p>\n \u201cOur bipartisan legislation would protect American social media users by driving the divestment of foreign adversary-controlled apps to ensure that Americans are protected from the digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that could weaponize their personal data against them,\u201d Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, on the bill\u2019s co-sponsors, said in <\/a>.<\/p>\n TikTok has repeatedly denied sharing any data with the Chinese government and says it would not comply if they were requested to do so. However, ByteDance has been caught mishandling TikTok user data in the past. In 2022, ByteDance <\/a> employees, including two based in China, for accessing the data of reporters who had written stories critical of the company. There\u2019s no evidence those actions were directed by the Chinese government.<\/p>\n In fact the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act would do little to address the data access issue, experts say. Even if the app was banned or controlled by a different company, Americans\u2019 personal information would remain readily available from the largely unregulated data broker industry.<\/p>\n Data brokers gain access to vast troves of Americans\u2019 personal data via scores of apps, websites, credit card companies and other businesses. Currently, there are few restrictions on what data can be collected or who can buy it. Biden Administration officials have warned that China is <\/a> up this data, much of it more revealing than anything TikTok collects.<\/p>\n \u201cThe data that’s been collected about you will almost certainly live longer than you will, and there’s really nothing you can do to delete it or get rid of it,\u201d Justin Cappos, an NYU computer science professor and member of the NYU Center for Cybersecurity, told Engadget. \u201cIf the US really wants to solve this, the way to do it isn’t to blame a social media company in China and make them the face of the problem. It’s really to pass the meaningful data privacy regulations and go after [data] collection and go after these data brokers.\u201d<\/p>\n The House recently passed a bill that <\/a> data brokers from selling Americans\u2019 personal information to \u201cadversary\u201d countries like China. But, if passed, the law wouldn\u2019t address the sale of that data to other entities or the wholesale collection of it to begin with.<\/p>\n Digital rights and free speech advocates like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have also raised the possibility that the US forcing a ban or sale of TikTok could give other countries cover to enact similar bans or restrictions on US-based social media platforms. In a letter to lawmakers opposing the measure, the EFF, American Civil Liberties Union and other groups argued that it would \u201cset an alarming global precedent for excessive government control over social media platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n David Greene, a senior staff attorney at the EFF notes that the United States has forcefully criticized nations that have banned social media apps. \u201cThe State Department has been highly critical of countries that have shut down services,\u201d Greene told Engadget, noting that the US <\/a> the Nigerian government for <\/a> in 2021. \u201cShutting down a whole service is essentially an anti-democratic thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Intelligence officials held a <\/a> with members of Congress about TikTok shortly before the vote on the House floor. That\u2019s led some pundits to believe that there must be new information about TikTok, but some lawmakers have suggested otherwise.\u201cNot a single thing that we heard in today\u2019s classified briefing was unique to TikTok,\u201d Representative Sara Jacobs told the <\/em><\/a>. \u201cIt was things that happen on every single social media platform.\u201d Likewise, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Jim Hines, <\/a> that TikTok is \u201clargely a potential threat \u2026 if Congress were serious about dealing with this threat, we would start with a federal privacy bill.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n