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This week the House will hold a vote on a bipartisan bill that would prevent the social media app TikTok from appearing in app stores unless it's able to be "fully divested" from Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance.

Following a unanimous vote on March 7, The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (H.R.7521) advanced from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and will now receive a full vote on Wednesday at around 10 a.m. according to Reuters.

The bill was introduced on March 5 by 19 members of the House Select Committee on the CCP – including Chair Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL).

The bill also has the support of President Biden, who said "I'll sign it" if Congress puts it on his desk.

Trojan Horse?

The rushed bill, seemingly out of nowhere – and just weeks after the Biden campaign made a TikTok account (and posted to it) on Super Bowl Sunday, has raised concerns over government overreach.

On Tuesday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) noted on X, "The so-called TikTok ban is a trojan horse" that would give the President the power to "ban WEB SITES," not just apps.

"If you think this isn’t a Trojan horse and will only apply to TikTok and foreign-adversary social media companies, then contemplate why someone thought it was important to get a very specific exclusion for their internet based business written into the bill," he added.

Expanding on this was The Federalist's Sean Davis, who wrote in a lengthy post on X (emphasis ours):

Mea Culpa

While TikTok has been long accused of curating degenerate content to feed the minds of Western youth, this, and worse, is what all social media platforms have been doing for years.

And with regards to the ongoing chess game to decide the fate of TikTok – on one hand, the Wall Street Journal just reported that after company believed they had scored a recent victory, including the Biden campaign embracing the platform, "Behind the scenes in Washington, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and Biden administration officials had been quietly planning new legislation to ban TikTok or force its sale to a non-Chinese owner."

On the other hand, Donald Trump – who has previously pushed to ban TikTok, came out against the bill (after meeting with Billionaire TikTok investor Jeff Yass who holds a 15% stake in ByteDance) – leading some to suggest that the former president had "sold out."

We also learned from Politico that former Trump Aide Kellyanne Conway has begun lobbying for TikTok on behalf of the conservative Club for Growth – of which Yass is a large financial backer – and at whose retreat Trump praised Yass as "fantastic."

So, lots of chess going on and forces at work.

Yet, after further consideration, this Tyler got it wrong. As ZeroHedge commenter PrintCash pointed out on Monday, this is both a free speech issue and a matter of limited government vs. legislative overreach that – based on the above, appears to set the stage for widespread abuse.