The House of Representatives today passed a bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. or lead to its separation from Beijing-based parent company ByteDance Ltd.

The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, as the bill is known, was approved with a vote of 352-65. One lawmaker voted present. To go into effect, the legislation will have to be approved in the Senate and then signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden, who has expressed support for the legislation.

The bill prohibits companies from distributing, maintaining, or providing hosting services to a service designated as a “foreign adversary controlled application.” The legislation applies that designation to TikTok, as well as any application operated by its parent company ByteDance. Additionally, the restrictions could be expanded in the future to include any “social media company that is controlled by a foreign adversary and has been determined by the President to present a significant threat to national security.”

Under the legislation, tech firms such as Apple Inc. will be prohibited from distributing TikTok through their app marketplaces. If a company is found to breach that provision, it could face a fine of $500 for each U.S. user “determined to have accessed, maintained, or updated” the service. Upon the legislation’s enactment, app store operators and other market players to which the requirement applies will have 180 days to achieve compliance.

The bill also imposes new legal requirements on TikTok itself. The company will have to provide a way for consumers to move all their data to another app or face a fine of $500 for each affected user. Under the bill, TikTok can avoid a ban in the U.S. if it separates from parent TikTok through a divestiture.

The House passed the bill through a fast-tracked review process that began earlier this month. Lawmakers introduced the legislation on March 5 and the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved it a few days later. 

Last week, TikTok sent its 170 million U.S. users push notifications urging them to oppose the bill. The company wrote in the alert that the legislation would “damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and deny artists an audience.” TikTok also included instructions designed to help users find and contact their representative.

The company previously launched an initiative called Project Texas in a bid to stave off a ban. The multiyear, $1.5 billion project was detailed following revelations that employees of TikTok and parent ByteDance accessed some users’ nonpublic account data. According to the company, the goal of Project Texas is to move U.S. users’ data to stateside servers hosted in Oracle Corp.’s cloud platform.

The initiative failed to alleviate regulatory concerns about TikTok. In December 2022, Biden signed a law that prohibits the use of the app on federal government devices. Last May, Montana became the first U.S. state to pass a law banning TikTok.

The Senate has not yet prepared a companion bill for the legislation passed today by the House. According to Axios, the top two senators on the Intelligence Committee have expressed support for the measure. The bill is expected to face a court challenge in the event that it becomes law, which may extend the implementation timeframe. 

Some experts argue that stricter regulations will be necessary to address the full risks facing consumers online. 

“The lack of strict regulations on data sales or algorithmic manipulations means any entity, domestic or foreign, could exploit user data or sway public opinion subtly,” Adam Marrè, chief information security officer at cybersecurity provider Arctic Wolf Networks Inc., told SiliconANGLE. “While addressing TikTok’s specific threats is valid, such efforts fall short as a sustainable, comprehensive strategy, failing to confront the broader privacy and security concerns inherent in the tech industry.”

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