What you need to know about the proposed TikTok legislation

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives are expected to vote starting about 10 a.m. Wednesday on legislation aimed at forcing ByteDance, the Chinese internet company, to sell its wildly popular social media app TikTok.

The vote would be the latest development in a years-long cold war between the United States and China over who controls valuable technology, from computer chips to artificial intelligence. Lawmakers and the White House have raised concerns that Chinese ownership of TikTok poses a national security risk because Beijing could use the app to access U.S. data or wage a disinformation campaign.

If the House of Representatives approves the bill, it will face an uncertain future in the Senate. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, has not yet committed to putting it up for a vote.

Here’s what you need to know about the bill.

Why did House lawmakers support the bill?

Many are concerned that the Chinese government could demand the personal data of Americans from ByteDance and that ByteDance would have to comply under Chinese law.

Lawmakers including Representative Mike Gallagher, the Wisconsin Republican who co-led the bill, and Senator Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, also say China could use TikTok’s powerful algorithm to feed its users political propaganda. Christopher A. Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Avril Haines, director of national intelligence, have raised the concerns over the past year.

The bill, which Representative Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican, co-sponsored with Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, has received bipartisan support.

TikTok says the concerns are unfounded. It notes that about 60 percent of the company is owned by global institutional investors, including financial giants Susquehanna International Group and BlackRock. It also says that there are three Americans on the five-member board. According to the company, it spent more than $1 billion on a scheme that stores sensitive U.S. user data domestically on servers owned by Oracle, the U.S. cloud computing company.

How would the bill force ByteDance to sell TikTok?

The bill essentially says TikTok must be sold within six months to a buyer who satisfies the U.S. government. The sale should ensure that ByteDance no longer has control over TikTok or its algorithms that recommend content to users.

If ByteDance cannot or refuses to sell TikTok, it would be illegal for app stores and web hosting companies to distribute or update the app in the United States. The Justice Department could punish any company that works with TikTok or offers its app for download.

Probably not.

With 170 million users in the United States alone, TikTok would come with a high price tag that few companies or individuals could afford. If ByteDance is forced to sell, it is also unclear whether ByteDance would put the app’s entire global footprint up for sale or just the US operations.

Some of the companies that could potentially afford to purchase TikTok include tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram. But the Biden administration has repeatedly tried, using antitrust law, to prevent these companies from getting bigger.

Even if ByteDance could find a buyer for TikTok, China might not let a sale happen. In 2020, when U.S. officials first tried to force a sale of TikTok, Beijing imposed export restrictions on technology that sounded similar to TikTok’s content recommendation algorithm. Last year, Beijing said it would oppose a sale.

“You’re not going to be able to force ByteDance to divest,” said James Lewis, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

What is the policy of a ban?

Support for a ban was bipartisan, as Republicans and Democrats were both concerned about China’s influence.

But in a surprising move, former President Donald J. Trump has opposed the TikTok legislation in recent days. That was a reversal of his position on the app in 2020, when he tried to ban it.

“Trump’s opposition is a significant new headwind to this bill becoming law,” said Paul Gallant, a policy analyst at TD Cowen. “A lot will depend on whether he goes to the mat with this TikTok bill like he did with the border security bill.”

Free speech groups have also opposed the bill, saying they fear a ban would stifle expression.

What technically needs to happen to ban an app from a country?

If the bill passes the House and Senate and is signed into law by the president, it would impose civil penalties on app stores, such as Apple and Google, if they distribute or update TikTok.

The app is already on millions of phones in the United States, but the restriction on updates will likely reduce users’ access to the app.

This would be supplemented by a measure banning web hosting companies from helping to distribute the app.