Keith Rabois of Khosla Ventures attends Day 3 of TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013 at San Francisco Design Center on September 11, 2013 in San Francisco, California.
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A Republican megadonor on Tuesday threatened to cut off campaign contributions to members of Congress unless they vote for a bill that could effectively ban TikTok in the United States.
“Will never fund any Republican candidates or leadership PACs (or the NRSC) run by Republicans who vote against the TikTok legislation,” venture capitalist Keith Rabois wrote on X.
On Wednesday, the House is expected to pass a bill to force TikTok’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, to sell off the social media platform. Supporters of the bill say ByteDance’s continued ownership of TikTok and its troves of user data pose a national security threat to the United States.
“Support for the TikTok bill is an IQ test” for members of Congress, Rabois wrote in an email to CNBC.
In February, Rabois gave $500,000 to the Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee that backs House Republican candidates, according to a Federal Election Commission filing.
Rabois’ threat could have significant sway over those Republican lawmakers still on the fence about whether to support the bill.
For some of the bill’s supporters, that political calculus grew more complicated last week when former President Donald Trump announced he opposed the measure. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee was joined by Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk, who also criticized the legislation.
The bill’s prospects in the Senate were still uncertain on Tuesday.
“On the Senate, it will be up to the Democrat Leader [Chuck Schumer] to bring it to the floor. If he does, we will have a clear voting record” of where each senator stands on the issue, Rabois told CNBC.
If the bill were to pass the Senate and be signed into law, ByteDance would have just six months to sell off TikTok, before the app is banned from American app…
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