By: Avry Zow

The House is cracking down on TikTok. This comes after a fear of potential surveillance of the American audience and the possibility of swaying political belief as they have ties to Chinese company ByteDance.

The legislation approved a 352 to 65 vote banning the app in the U.S., Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers says, “Today we send a clear message that we will not tolerate our adversaries weaponizing our freedoms against us.” 

Tiktok is stationed in Los Angeles, California, the company, however, says it has not collaborated with ByteDance to allow them to analyze and manipulate their audience and would not offer their data if asked to. 

In a statement last week, the company expressed “the government is attempting to strip 170 million Americans of their Constitutional right to free expression.”

In the midst of the battle with the legislation, the company urged its users to contact their representatives to oppose their disposition of the app in a pop-up message. However, this made House leaders apprehensive as they saw this action as the company using its vast power to intimidate the House and sway the public opinion. 

Representative Mike Gallagher said, “This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users.”

With the House passing in favor of banning Tiktok, the bill will now be moved to the Senate that will either approve, revise, or deny it. If the bill is passed, it will move to President Biden, who has stated already that he would sign the bill that would ban TikTok.