House votes to force TikTok parent company ByteDance to divest or face US ban – live

TikTok says House bill is a ‘ban’

TikTok has released a statement describing the bill passed in the House as a “ban” on the social media platform, which is used by 170 million users in the US.

The statement reads:

This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It’s a ban. We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, seven million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service.

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Updated at 11.28 EDT

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The US supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh is not a “consummately honest person” and “must know” what really happened on the night more than 40 years ago when he allegedly sexually assaulted Christine Blasey Ford, his accuser writes in an eagerly awaited memoir.

Ford was thrust into the spotlight in September 2018 as Kavanaugh, a Bush aide turned federal judge, became Donald Trump’s second conservative court nominee. Kavanaugh’s nomination became mired in controversy after a Washington Post interview in which Ford said Kavanaugh, while drunk, sexually assaulted her at a party in Montgomery county, Maryland, when they were both in high school.

Kavanaugh vehemently denied the accusation, helping fuel hearing-room rancor not seen since the 1991 confirmation of Clarence Thomas, a rightwinger accused of sexually harassing a co-worker, Anita Hill.

Supported by Republicans and Trump, Kavanaugh rode out the storm to join Thomas on the court. Trump would later add another conservative, Amy Coney Barrett, tipping the court 6-3 to the right. That court has since passed down major rightwing rulings, most prominently removing the federal right to abortion.

Ford’s memoir, One Way Back, will be published next week. The Guardian obtained a copy.

“The fact is, he was there in the room with me that night in 1982,” Ford writes.

I believe he knows what happened. Even if it’s hazy from the alcohol, I believe he must know. Once he categorically denied my allegations as well as any bad behavior from his past during a Fox News interview, I felt more certainty than ever that after my experience with him, he had not gone on to become the consummately honest person befitting a supreme court justice.

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Nikki Haley received more than 77,000 votes in the Georgia Republican primary on Tuesday despite dropping out of the race last week.

The former South Carolina governor and Donald Trump’s UN ambassador secured 77,761 votes or 13% of the vote in Georgia. While many of her supporters voted early, nearly 20,000 of votes that went to Haley came from those casting their ballots on election day, Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley received more than 77,000 votes in Georgia’s Republican primary race. Photograph: Chris Carlson/AP

Trump won the state with 84.5% on Tuesday, as well as winning Mississippi and Washington, securing him enough votes to get the GOP nomination for president.

But the Georgia results contain a potential warning for the former president’s campaign. Trump lost Georgia to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential elections by fewer than 12,000 votes or less than a quarter of a percentage point. Biden also became his party’s presumptive nominee on Tuesday.

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Updated at 12.24 EDT

Before this morning’s House vote, China warned that a TikTok ban would “come back to bite the United States”.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin accused the US of “suppressing TikTok” despite having “never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security.” He added:

This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order.

“In the end, this will inevitably come back to bite the United States itself,” Wang said.

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Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s vice-president, has thrown his support behind the TikTok bill despite opposition from his former boss.

Posting to X, Pence congratulated House speaker Mike Johnson on passing the bill and urged the Senate to take up the legislation “as soon as possible”.

ShareSchumer noncommittal on fate of TikTok bill in Senate

Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, has issued a short statement after the House voted to pass the TikTok bill.

The statement by Schumer reads:

The Senate will review the legislation when it comes over from the House.

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Updated at 12.31 EDT

Hunter Biden declines invitation to impeachment hearing

Hunter Biden will not attend a public hearing related to House Republicans’ efforts to impeach his father, Joe Biden, his legal team said.

In a letter obtained by AP and Axios, Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell informed the chair of the House oversight committee, James Comer, that his client will not accept the committee’s invitation for him to appear for the 20 March hearing. The letter reads:

Your latest step – this March 6 invitation – is not a serious oversight proceeding. It is your attempt to resuscitate your Conference’s moribund inquiry with a made-for-right-wing-media, circus act.

Calling the invitation “a Hail Mary pass”, Lowell said he thought even Comer would “recognize your baseless impeachment proceeding was dead.”

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, in Washington, 28 February 2024. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Although no evidence has been produced, Republicans have accused Joe Biden and his family of personally profiting from his position while vice-president and have zeroed in on his son, Hunter, who had business ventures in Ukraine and China during that period.

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Updated at 11.38 EDT

TikTok says House bill is a ‘ban’

TikTok has released a statement describing the bill passed in the House as a “ban” on the social media platform, which is used by 170 million users in the US.

The statement reads:

This process was secret and the bill was jammed through for one reason: It’s a ban. We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, seven million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service.

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Updated at 11.28 EDT

House speaker Mike Johnson has urged the Senate to pass the TikTok bill after it passed in a landslide vote in the House.

Johnson, in a statement posted to X, said China is “America’s largest geopolitical foe” and said apps like TikTok “allow the Chinese Communist Party to push harmful content to our youth and engage in malign activities.”

ShareSenate intelligence leaders express support for TikTok bill

Leaders of the Senate intelligence committee have issued a joint statement saying that they “look forward” to getting the TikTok bill passed through Senate and signed into law.

The statement by Senate select committee on intelligence chair Mark Warner and vice-chair Marco Rubio reads:

We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok – a platform with enormous power to influence and divide Americans whose parent company ByteDance remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Community Party.

We were encouraged by today’s strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives, and look forward to working together to get this bill passed through the Senate and signed into law.

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Updated at 11.42 EDT

Kari Paul

The vote in the House represents the most concrete threat to TikTok in an ongoing political battle over allegations the China-based company ByteDance could collect sensitive user data and politically censor content.

TikTok has repeatedly stated it has not and would not share US user data with the Chinese government.

Despite those arguments, TikTok faced an attempted ban by Donald Trump in 2020 and a state-level ban passed in Montana in 2023. Courts blocked both of those bans on grounds of first amendment violations, and Trump the ex-president has since reversed his stance, now opposing a ban on TikTok.

The treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) in March 2023 demanded ByteDance sell their TikTok shares or face the possibility of the app being banned, Reuters reported, but no action has been taken.

The bill’s future is less certain in the Senate. Some Senate Democrats have publicly opposed the bill, citing freedom of speech concerns, and suggested measures that would address concerns of foreign influence across social media without targeting TikTok specifically.

Although the bill was written with TikTok in mind, it is possible other China-owned platforms could be impacted, including US operations of Tencent’s WeChat, which Trump also sought to ban in 2020.

ShareHouse votes to force ByteDance to divest TikTok or face ban

The House has voted to pass a bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the app or face a ban in the US.

The bill passed 352 to 65.

But the bill faces a more uncertain path in the senate, and the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, has not yet committed to putting it on the floor.

The legislation would give ByteDance 165 days from the day it is enacted to divest from the social media app used by about 170 million Americans, or face a ban in US app stores and web hosting services.

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Updated at 11.14 EDT

House on track to pass TikTok bill

The House of Representatives has enough votes to pass a bill that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the app or face a ban in the US.

The vote continues in the House, but it is on track to pass the chamber and by a wide margin.

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Updated at 10.43 EDT

Judge dismisses some charges against Trump in Georgia election case

The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump and his allies has thrown out some of the charges against the former president and several of his co-defendants, but many other counts in the indictment remain.

The Fulton County superior court judge Scott McAfee ruled that six of the counts in the 41-count indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump. But the order leaves intact other charges, and the judge wrote that prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.

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Updated at 10.30 EDT

Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, said he voted no on the TikTok bill.

A statement by Himes reads:

As a ranking member of the intelligence committee I have more insight than most into the online threats posed by our adversaries. But one of the key differences between us and those adversaries is the fact that they shut down newspapers, broadcast stations, and social media platforms.

We do not. We trust our citizens to be worthy of their democracy. We do not trust our government to decide what information they may or may not see.

He added that he believed there is a way to address the challenge posed by TikTok “that is consistent with our commitment to freedom of expression”,

But a bill quickly passed by one committee less than a week ago is not that way.

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Updated at 10.24 EDT

House votes on TikTok bill

Voting has started on the House’s bill.

Under fast-track rules, it requires support by two-thirds of House members for the measure to pass.

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