US House passes bill to ban TikTok
The US House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved a bill that would require TikTok to distance itself from its Chinese owner or face a ban in the United States.
By a vote of 352 in favor and 65 against, members of Congress from both parties have come together to send a strong message to the popular video-sharing app.
The proposed law seeks to compel TikTok to cut its connections with its Chinese owner due to concerns over national security.
The fate of the bill now rests in the hands of the Senate, where some are hesitant to take such a drastic step against an app that boasts 170 million users in the US.
President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill, officially named the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” into law.
If passed, the legislation would require TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app within 180 days or face removal from major app stores in the US.
Furthermore, it grants the president the authority to identify other applications deemed national security risks if owned by nations deemed adversarial to the US.
The unexpected move against TikTok has caused concern for the company, with executives scrambling to address the situation.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has been actively engaging in discussions in Washington in a bid to prevent the bill from moving forward.
READ ALSO: TikTok caught in the middle of US-China tensions as ban looms
“This latest legislation was rushed through at unprecedented speed without even the benefit of a public hearing, poses serious Constitutional concerns,” wrote Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice president for public policy, in a letter to the bill’s co-sponsors seen by AFP.
The co-sponsors, House Republican Mike Gallagher and House Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, as well as the White House, argue that the bill is not a ban of Tiktok, as long as the company divests from ByteDance.
China warned on Wednesday that the move would “inevitably come back to bite the United States”.
“Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok,” foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, condemning it as “bullying behavior”.
In a turnaround from his earlier stance, former president Donald Trump on Monday said he is against a ban, mainly because it would strengthen Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, which he called an “enemy of the people.”
When Trump was president, he attempted to wrest control of Tiktok from ByteDance, but was blocked by US courts.
Trump denied accusations that he changed his tune because a major investor in TikTok, hedge funder Jeff Yass, is donating to his campaign.
Other efforts to ban TikTok also failed with a bill proposed a year ago getting nowhere largely over free speech concerns.
Similarly, a state law passed in Montana banning the platform was suspended by a federal court on the suspicion that it likely violated constitutional free speech rights.
TikTok staunchly denies any ties to the Chinese government and has restructured the company so the data of US users stays in the country, the company says.
