Most Americans support House plan to ban TikTok if it isn't sold, poll finds
A slim majority of Americans are in favor of a House bill that would ban TikTok if the platform is not sold to a company without ties to the Chinese Communist Party, according to a Wednesday poll.
The poll from Quinnipiac University found that 51% of Americans support the legislation, compared to 41% who support an outright national ban. A plurality of voters, 47%, said they oppose the latter move.
Broken down by age, however, younger Americans are far more likely to defend access to TikTok. Among 18- to 34-year-olds, 60% opposed the House legislation, while just 35% supported it.
Quinnipiac conducted its poll from March 21-25, via telephone interviews, including both cellphones and landlines. The survey included 1,569 U.S. adults and reports a margin of error of 2.5%.
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Earlier this month, the House of Representatives passed legislation requiring TikTok to divest itself of CCP control or face a ban in the U.S.
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The bill, led by House China Select Committee Chair Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., would block TikTok in the U.S. if its parent company, Bytedance, does not divest from it within 165 days of passage. It would also require it to be bought by a country that is not a U.S. adversary.
TikTok’s critics have long called the social media app a national security threat. They have cited concerns about the Chinese government’s ability to leverage its power over Bytedance to access sensitive user data, even in the U.S., something the company has denied.
China hawks have also warned that the app’s popularity among young Americans gives the ruling Chinese Communist Party a platform for a mass influence campaign.
Opponents of the bill, including young people and activists, flooded Congress with phone calls and messages urging them not to restrict TikTok prior to the vote this month. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, one of the bill's lead co-sponsors, told Fox News Digital that lawmakers’ offices were even fielding calls from people threatening suicide.
"TikTok fires everybody up and then our offices are getting called with thousands of people calling up. Some kid called in, said they were gonna commit suicide. We have people calling in saying, ‘I’m on this all day long, every day. You can’t take this away from me,’" Roy said at the time. "It’s like we called into an AA meeting."
The bill passed through the House with a widely bipartisan 352-65 vote.
Fox News' Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report