ROANOKE, Va. – The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to approve a bipartisan bill requiring ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, to sell the social media app or face a ban on all U.S. devices.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who chairs the House Select Committee on China and is the lead GOP sponsor of the bipartisan bill. He reiterates the bill does not amount to a ban of the video-sharing app.
“I have no problem with continued dance videos or even political campaigning on TikTok, so long as the ownership structure changes, and I think the world we all want to live in is one in which ByteDance will divest from TikTok,” Gallagher said.
10 News decided to talk with local content creators about their thoughts on the ban.
University of Virginia Psychology Professor Daniel Willingham initially started making videos to promote his book.
“I never really considered using it and then I published a book that was aimed at high school and college students,” Willingham said.
But the videos then turned into offering science-backed advice on how to make the new semester less stressful.
He has more than one million views on his videos and over 128,000 followers on the site. However, those followers could soon go away if a TikTok ban is put in place.
“I mean it’s possible I’ll continue to create videos and post them on another platform. It’s possible I’ll just give up. I’m unlike most creators in that I don’t really care about clout,” Willingham said. “I don’t create the videos to try and make money off them or gain some partnership.”
TikTok has said the banning of a social media platform would amount to a violation of the free speech rights of millions of Americans.
However, Virginia Tech Communications Professor Mike Horning believes that could be a tough argument.
“You are not crafting a law that says people can’t say things on social media. You’re crafting a law that says this app raises a national security risk,” Horning said.
President Biden’s campaign posts regularly on TikTok, but the White House has said if a bill is sent to his desk he’ll sign it.