U.S. House votes to ban TikTok unless its Chinese parent company sells it. Here’s how Iowa's reps voted.

DES MOINES — Every member of Iowa’s all-Republican U.S. House delegation voted Wednesday to pass a measure to force the wildly popular social media platform TikTok to split from its Chinese parent company or face a national ban.

“Our bill is simple: it forces TikTok to cut ties with the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) or lose American users,” U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, of Marion, said on the House floor.

Hinson sits on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party that originated the bill.

“Today, we are sending a message to the CCP that we are going to deflate the 140 million spy balloons they’ve installed on American phones,” she said. “We are going to protect our kids, our national security, and our cybersecurity."

The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate where it faces an uncertain future and concerns from some lawmakers that it violates Americans’ rights to free expression. Critics say rather than explicitly singling out TikTok, Congress should focus on bolstering data privacy and security.

Iowa Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley told reporters Wednesday he will likely vote to approve the bill in the Senate but is not yet “a firm ‘yes.’ ”

Grassley said he wants more information from U.S. intelligence officials and colleagues that serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee about the national security risk posed by TikTok’s Beijing-based parent, ByteDance.

Though TikTok is incorporated in the United States, its ties to ByteDance have long triggered fears the app could be weaponized by Chinese government officials to snoop on Americans and shape their political views by promoting and spreading misinformation or disinformation.

The company says it has never and would never share U.S. user data with the Chinese government and disputes claims of any foreign interference or influence.

“I think anything connected to the Chinese Communist Party must be suspect, and that’s why I’m telling you I’m leaning toward (supporting the bill),” Grassley told reporters during a weekly conference call. “But I’m going to reserve just a little bit of judgment till I get the briefings we ought to have until we pass it.

“Regardless of how I vote, I think (Senate Majority Chuck) Schumer should bring it up” for a Senate vote, Grassley said.

The 90-year-old, an avid use of Twitter, now X, said he’s never used TikTok.

Grassley last year discounted concerns about a potential TikTok ban violating the First Amendment free-speech protections, noting that users could migrate to other apps.

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in a 2023 op-ed column, called TikTok a “dangerous platform China has weaponized against Americans.” She praised efforts, including in Iowa, to ban the app from government devices and called for prohibiting other taxpayer-funded entities, such as federally funded universities and airports, from advertising or partnering with the platform.

“Make no mistake about it, TikTok is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party propaganda machine living rent-free on the devices of 150 million Americans, and it’s putting our national security in jeopardy,” Ernst wrote. “This insidious app collects your data, surveils behavior, monitors user habits, and negatively influences our youth with an endless stream of addictive content.”

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