US senator says TikTok divestment deadline could be extended to a year

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee said on Wednesday that lawmakers could extend to a year a proposed deadline to force TikTok's parent company, China's ByteDance, to shut down the short-video app used by 170 million Americans to sell.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted 352-65 on March 13 to give TikTok's ByteDance about six months to divest the short-video app's U.S. assets or face a ban.

Senate Commerce Committee Chairwoman Maria Cantwell said she likes the idea of ​​extending the deadline to a year. “I suspect that would be a good component to guarantee success,” she told reporters on Wednesday. “We talk to our colleagues, people have questions.”

Congressional staff had told Reuters that the idea of ​​a one-year deadline had been discussed. The longer deadline would push a possible TikTok ban well into 2025 and beyond the November presidential election.

On Monday, Cantwell told reporters she would meet with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner and “then we will have a plan moving forward.”

On Wednesday, Cantwell said it was still “possible” the Senate could adopt the House bill, but she reiterated that senators want to make the bill stronger and put it on a better legal footing. She noted that attempts by former President Donald Trump's administration and the state of Montana to ban TikTok failed.

This week, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell endorsed the forced divestment of TikTok, calling TikTok “America's greatest strategic rival, threatening our security here on U.S. soil in tens of millions of American homes.”

TikTok has become a big topic in Washington. Lawmakers have been inundated with calls from users opposing the legislation.

“Banning TikTok would violate the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans,” TikTok said Friday.

The story goes on

Many lawmakers and President Joe Biden's administration say TikTok poses a national security risk because China could force TikTok to share American user data, while TikTok insists it has never and never will share U.S. data would.

TikTok says it has spent more than $1.5 billion protecting and storing U.S. data in the United States

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)