This week, congressional offices on Capitol Hill were inundated with phone calls and social media posts begging them to reconsider an audacious bill currently moving through Congress: a potential ban on TikTok.
The social media app told its users to call their members of Congress in protest of the new bipartisan bill, arguing that a ban would infringe on their constitutional right to free expression and harm businesses and creators across the country.
Teens and the elderly alike reportedly pleaded with congressional staff, saying they spend all day on the app. Creators posted on TikTok urging their followers to do the same. Some offices decided to temporarily shut down their phone lines as a result, which meant that they couldn’t field calls from their constituents about other issues either.
Lawmakers in both parties didn’t take kindly to the impromptu lobbying frenzy. Some characterized it as confirmation of their fears that the Chinese-owned app — which is already banned on government devices — is brainwashing America. The overrun phone lines were merely “making the case” for the bill, US Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) wrote on X.
Indeed, all 50 members of the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce voted Thursday to advance the legislation, which would require TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest from the app within 165 days or else it will be removed from US app stores.
That sets up a vote on the House floor next week. The White House has backed the bill from the beginning, reportedly providing technical support to legislators when they were drafting it (even as President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign has started using TikTok for voter outreach).
In other words, this bill isn’t just grandstanding. It has a real chance of becoming law.
That said, there’s the crucial question of whether it would survive legal scrutiny. A federal court recently overturned a Montana law that sought to ban TikTok. Though legislators sponsoring…
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