A powerful House committee voted to advance legislation on Wednesday that would make it easier to ban TikTok from the United States and crack down on other China-related economic activity, amid vocal objections from some lawmakers and civil liberties advocates who argue the proposal is unconstitutionally broad and threatens a wide range of online speech.
The bill, known as H.R. 1153 or the Deterring America's Technological Adversaries Act, also weakens a 35-year-old law, known as the Berman Amendment to IEEPA, that prohibited the US government from restricting the free flow of "informational materials" such as movies, photos, news and eventually electronic media to and from foreign countries, even those under US sanction.
"A U.S. ban on TikTok is a ban on the export of American culture and values to the billion-plus people who use our service worldwide," TikTok spokesperson Brooke Oberwetter said in a statement. "We're disappointed to see this rushed piece of legislation move forward, despite its considerable negative impact on the free speech rights of millions of Americans who use and love TikTok.
But Democrats pushed back, saying the public had had just days to consider the bill before McCaul brought the legislation to a vote. The legislation's breadth would unintentionally affect US and European businesses, they said. The panel's top Democrat, New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, warned that Taiwanese and Korean chipmakers could all be harmed by the bill at a time when the US government is trying to entice those same companies to build chip manufacturing plants in the United States.
California Democratic Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, who proposed one of the amendments to create a carveout for Riot Games, called the bill "ill-conceived," "hastily drafted," and "precipitous."