Illustration by Nick Barclay / The Verge
Republicans on a powerful House committee voted to advance a bill on Wednesday that would allow President Joe Biden to ban TikTok from the United States, despite objections from Democrats and civil liberty groups.
In a 24-16 vote, the House Foreign Affairs Committee greenlit Rep. Michael McCaul’s (R-TX) Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries Act, or DATA Act, sending it to the House floor. The bill directs Biden to sanction, or possibly ban, TikTok nationwide if the administration finds that the company shared user data with individuals associated with the Chinese government. If that data was used to surveil, hack, or censor users, Biden could impose additional sanctions against TikTok and its parent-company Bytedance.
“TikTok is…
