Sen. Schumer, Sen. Blumenthal, and Sen. Cantwell, Fla., Rep. Warner, d-Conn., and a Democrat, Markey, D-Mass, Where Do We Stand?

The Senate could provide a longer time frame if there isn’t enough time to transition from one owner to another.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., sidestepped answering when the bill would move in the Senate, telling reporters, “I’m talking to the members of my caucus to decide the best path forward.”

The House bill was denounced by TikTok as an attack on the free speech rights of the app’s users, and argued that shutting it down would hurt small businesses that use it and content creators who depend on it.

“My reaction to this briefing is that TikTok is a gun aimed at Americans’ heads,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told reporters while leaving the session, adding, “The Chinese Communists are weaponizing information that they are constantly, surreptitiously collecting from 170 million Americans and potentially aiming that information, using it through algorithms at the core of American democracy.”

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who chairs the Senate Commerce Committee, which has primary jurisdiction over the issue, told reporters she wanted a public hearing, potentially with the Senate Intelligence Committee, a move that could slow down Senate action.

Warner noted that after the House received a similar briefing about national security concerns, a key committee approved a bill 50-0. The measure was approved overwhelmingly by the House. But Warner said there is a need for more senators and the public to process the information, and the senators aren’t likely to act as swiftly as their House counterparts, despite many echoing concerns about the issues posed by the app.

But Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass, said that the focus on just one social media app ignores a broader problem: “A discussion of TikTok that does not discuss all the other American social media companies is missing the forest for the trees.”

Reply to Rubio and Warner: “We need to know more about the Silicon Valley,” Sen. Mark Warner told reporters after the Senate Intelligence Committee on Decoherence

But the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, pointed to a Chinese law governing Chinese-owned companies, regardless of who is on their board, that dictates that every technology under Chinese control is required to do whatever the Chinese government tells it to do.

Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn are calling for TikTok briefings to be declassified so the government can “better educate the public on the need for urgent action.” The briefings come as support grows for a forced sale of TikTok due to national security concerns around ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the app.

“We have that entity with lots of personal data, access to it and the potential to manipulate it, and that is something young people look to as their No. 1 news source,” Warner said.

Mark Warner told reporters that he supported declassifying some of the analysis that was communicated in the briefing, as he organized for his colleagues to discuss the impact of the video-sharing app.

Many senators emerging from the session argued it was time to take up House-passed legislation that would force the Chinese owner of TikTok to divest or face a ban in the United States. But it’s clear that any Senate action could take weeks, if not months, and the chamber is likely to put its own stamp on a bill.

Both parties of congress want the public to have access to some of the sensitive information that US intelligence agencies shared about the influence and reach of TikTok.