Staff Reports
The Senate is finally starting to see the light and warm up to the idea of making TikTok go the way of the dodo bird. The House originally passed a bill back in March that would have put the kibosh on TikTok, citing worries about the Chinese government keeping an eye on us through the app. But some of the Senate big shots were hesitant about singling out one company for the old heave-ho.
Even though the brains behind the Senate Intelligence Committee from both sides of the aisle had the bill’s back, Senator Maria Cantwell was dragging her feet. She had even come up with her own bill, tryin’ to give the Commerce Department the power to kick foreign-owned apps to the curb. But the House bill, which passed by a landslide, would’ve given TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, just six months to find a new owner before the banhammer dropped. Cantwell thought that was too quick.
Senate warms to forced sale of TikTok following House tweak https://t.co/aTdn5UEkcN
— David Sivak (@DISivak) April 18, 2024
Fast forward to now, and it looks like the House made a few changes to the bill that has the Senate’s ears perkin’ up. The House tweaked the timeline to give ByteDance up to a year to sell off TikTok, and even tacked on the possibility of a 90-day extension if the White House throws its two cents in.
Cantwell has now hopped on the bandwagon, saying the updated bill is A-OK in her book. The longer period seems to be buttering up some of the hesitant senators, like Brian Schatz and Marco Rubio, who are now giving it a nod of approval.
And the cherry on top is that President Biden is on board with the TikTok teardown, which is a rarity in the land of political thumbs-downs. Looks like we might be saying, “bye-bye, TikTok” soon enough, especially with the House expected to vote on it this weekend and the Senate not dilly-dallying too long after that.
