The House Foreign Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to advance a bill empowering the president to enact greater restrictions on TikTok, over Democratic lawmakers’ objections, as the Biden administration decides whether to pursue a total blockade of the app.
The panel voted 24 to 16 along partisan lines to advance the bill to give President Biden more power. The measure, known as the Deterring America’s Technological Adversaries Act, was introduced Friday by committee Chairman Michael McCaul, Texas Republican.
“This legislation is a first step in protecting Americans against subversive data collection,” Mr. McCaul said ahead of the vote. “Currently, the courts have questioned the administration’s authority to sanction TikTok. My bill empowers the administration to ban TikTok or any other software application that threatens U.S. national security.”
Mr. Biden signed into law new restrictions that remove the China-founded video platform from government devices last year, and his team directed federal agencies this week to remove the app from their devices within 30 days. Critics have expressed concern that TikTok user data could end up in the hands of the Chinese government.
Mr. McCaul’s bill directs the president to tell Congress within 90 days of enactment of the law whether there is
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