The TikTok bill may be just the start of efforts to crack down on social media: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, assistant managing editor of tech and science Jason Abbruzzese explains how the TikTok vote in the House Wednesday is part of a broader effort to crack down on social media companies after years of inaction. Plus, chief political analyst Chuck Todd takes a look at the GOP divide in Ohio's Senate race ahead of next week's primary.

The TikTok bill may be just the start of efforts to crack down on social media

By Jason Abbruzzese

It’s not just TikTok.

Yes, Wednesday’s vote — and the vitriol surrounding it that surprisingly does not fall cleanly along party lines — was primarily about TikTok, as the House overwhelmingly approved legislation that could ban the popular app if the China-based ByteDance doesn’t divest it.

But it’s also a move that adds to the broader momentum around legislation aimed at cracking down on social media companies. For years, plenty of politicians had talked tough and floated the occasional bill targeting consumer tech giants. Tech companies like Facebook (now Meta) even mounted campaigns calling for regulation, albeit the kind that they helped shape. Little changed.

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That’s started to shift, and there’s plenty of bills that aren’t expressly about TikTok. The most notable, the Kids Online Safety Act, has also gained momentum on Capitol Hill and resulted in a similar scrambling of traditional political coalitions. That bill would require social media companies to do more to make their platforms safe for younger users around issues like