By Kalhan Rosenblatt and Kyle Stewart -
NBC News
The battle to ban TikTok in the United States intensifies: a bill that would force its owner, the Chinese company ByteDance, to give up its investment in the social network, passed a crucial vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday, while the company seeks support from its users in its defense with a request that they flood congressmen with phone calls to avoid a measure that could make the app illegal in the US.
The measure was approved unanimously by the Commerce and Energy Committee, and will now be submitted to the Plenary Session of the House.
TikTok sent notifications to some users encouraging them to call their representatives and ask them to vote against the bill.
The message contained text that said “
Stop a TikTok shutdown
” in large, white letters, and urged users to “speak up now.”
In a statement to NBC News, Noticias Telemundo's sister network, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed that the notification
was sent to users over 18 years of age
in the United States.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who is among the authors of the bipartisan bill, said other House members told him their offices were being inundated with calls from voters supporting TikTok.
“I have heard that they are receiving many calls [...].
Some members live in their offices,” said Gallagher, who chairs the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
“In fact, I live in mine.
[Some congressmen] said that last night their phones didn't stop ringing,” he added.
“TikTok is characterizing it as an outright ban, which is, of course, an outright lie,” he explained.
“It's not a ban," she added, "when ByteDance doesn't own the company, TikTok can continue to survive.
“People can still make all the silly dance videos they want on the platform or communicate with their friends and all that stuff.”
Matt Cardy/Getty Images
The bill was passed about a year after Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, testified before Congress about the social network's ties to the Chinese regime.
TikTok defends that the data of American users is stored in the United States, and that
the Chinese regime does not have access to or control the app
.
The bill, called the
Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act
, would give the president the power, through the FBI and other intelligence agencies, to classify certain social media applications as threats to national security if he deems them to be under the control of foreign enemies, such as China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives, told NBC News that he would bring the legislation to the floor “quickly.”
In response to the bill, a TikTok spokesperson said Congress “is trying to strip 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression.
“This will harm millions of businesses, deny audiences to artists, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country,” he denounced.
Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman posted a message on TikTok accusing his colleagues of “trying to ban TikTok.”
Bowman, who has 234,000 followers on TikTok, later told NBC News that he wants to see “comprehensive social media reform” and will likely oppose the legislation at this time.
“Once again, it seems like we're singling out TikTok and I don't really understand why,” he said.