According to a plan outlined by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, legislation forcing TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest ownership of the social media platform will soon become law.
Johnson intends to incorporate the TikTok divestment or prohibition bill into a series of fast-tracked legislations, including bills providing new aid to Ukraine and Israel. The House of Representatives is expected to pass the bill on Saturday, with the Senate also set to promptly consider the legislation.
On Wednesday, Johnson released the legislative texts of three bills, which will provide military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Indo-Pacific region allies, and offer humanitarian assistance to Gaza and other global hotspots.
In a text message to Republican members, he also plans to unveil the legislative text of a fourth bill, which will include other national security priorities. The proposal will encompass the TikTok divestment, a provision to help cover aid costs using seized Russian assets, and terms to counter Russia, China, and Iran through sanctions and other measures.
According to Bloomberg, a source indicated that the legislation would give ByteDance up to one year to divest TikTok, longer than the six-month timeframe in prior House-passed bills.
The stock price of TikTok’s major competitor, Snap Inc., rose by 4.7% on Wednesday.
The TikTok legislation passed by the House has garnered support from hawks concerned about data privacy and national security, fearing that extensive American user data may be accessed by Chinese companies and transmitted to the Chinese government. President Biden has stated that if the bill reaches his desk, he will sign it.
Nevertheless, some senators are expected to oppose the amended bill in the Senate. However, including the TikTok divestment or prohibition legislation in the foreign aid bill plan may secure passage with limited debate in the Senate.
An April 15 report by Fortune highlighted concerns from several interviewed former TikTok employees (four of whom were hired just last year) who revealed that during their tenure, TikTok’s operations were at least partially entangled with its parent company, and the company’s claimed independence from China was largely superficial. One former employee disclosed that every 14 days, spreadsheets containing data of hundreds of thousands of American users were sent via email to ByteDance in Beijing. This data included names, email addresses, IP addresses, as well as geographic and demographic information of American TikTok users. All this occurred as TikTok began implementing measures to store sensitive American user data in the U.S. and allow only American employees to access it.
Currently, 170 million Americans use TikTok, including individual users and businesses.