House lawmakers on Wednesday voted to pass a bill that intends to leave TikTok’s China-based owner ByteDance with two choices: divest the popular app or face a ban in the U.S.

President Biden has said he’s ready to sign the restriction into law, but the bill faces obstacles in the Senate fueled by the app’s fans who will vote in November.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said Congress must ensure TikTok has a future as a company for Americans or for the Chinese Communist Party, but not both.

“The Chinese Communist Party does not have a First Amendment right to conduct malign influence operations in the United States,” the Wisconsin Republican said in a video on X. “We need to cut out the Chinese Communist Party tumor from TikTok.”

A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers authored the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which would stop app stores and hosting services from making foreign adversary-controlled apps accessible online.

The bill doesn’t directly ban TikTok, but threatens a blockade if ByteDance doesn’t divest the app.

Lawmakers have expressed a range of reasons for wanting to sever TikTok’s ties to China, including concerns about data theft, espionage and foreign manipulation of Americans that could result in election interference.

Rep. Chip Roy, a co-sponsor of the legislation, said TikTok’s data collection on Americans is troubling.

“This is designed to be a framework that will allow us to ensure that we don’t have the Chinese Communist Party owning American data and using it nefariously against the American people,” the Texas Republican told reporters Tuesday.

Lawmakers’ heightened concerns about TikTok have arrived following new alerts from the U.S. intelligence community about China’s use of TikTok to influence Americans’ behavior.

The intelligence community’s annual threat assessment published Monday explicitly called out TikTok in its warning about the Chinese Communist Party’s global covert influence operations.

FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers on Tuesday that Americans must understand that businesses in China are compelled to cooperate with the government, and people in the U.S. need to decide what information they want to hand over to the communist regime.

Mr. Wray told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that Americans have to choose if they want the Chinese government to control what information they see online via algorithms.

“When it comes to the algorithm, and the recommendation algorithm, and the ability to conduct influence operations, that is extraordinarily difficult to detect,” Mr. Wray said at an intelligence committee hearing. “And that’s what makes it such a pernicious risk.”

TikTok has fought the legislation, mobilized its users to lobby against it and won allies on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Maxwell Frost, Florida Democrat, said he’s against spying but thinks the bill is too narrowly aimed at TikTok.

“Just because there is a legitimate problem here we need to fix doesn’t automatically say by any means necessary is OK,” he told reporters.

Mr. Gallagher told reporters he has discussed the bill with senators and praised the work of Sens. Mark Warner, Virginia Democrat, and Marco Rubio, Florida Republican, on addressing TikTok.

“I know there’s a lot of interest,” Mr. Gallagher said.

Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, is among the legislation’s opponents.

Mr. Paul said Wednesday on X that people supporting a TikTok ban are trying to scare Americans with erroneous claims regarding the app’s algorithm, TikTok’s ownership and the nationality of the company’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew.

The bill moved quickly through the House after being introduced and reviewed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee last week.

The longer the bill is debated, the more of a political issue it will likely become.

While Mr. Biden is welcoming the legislation, his campaign has joined the platform and his Republican challenger has spoken out against the bill.

Former President Donald Trump opposes the legislation and argues that any ban of TikTok would benefit Meta’s Facebook and other platforms.

Mr. Trump’s stand is expected to create obstacles for Senate Republicans calculating the political risk of bucking him.

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.

• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.

• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.