TikTok Divestment Push Advances With House Committee Approval
- Bill approved by panel 50-0, next must be passed by full House
- Lawmakers were flooded with calls urging them to vote no
TikTok mounted a last-minute effort to counter the bill by urging its users to call congressional offices to protest the bill.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A top Republican lawmaker said he’d seek a House vote next week on a bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent to sell the app or face a ban in the US, injecting new momentum into a congressional push to curtail Beijing’s influence over the video-sharing service.
The legislation, which was advanced by a key committee on Thursday, would block internet service providers and app stores such as those run by Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google from offering the platform unless TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. sells it within six months.