The US House of Representatives have voted to pass a bill that could lead to a nationwide ban against TikTok, one of the world’s most popular social media apps. It’s not yet clear what the future of the bill will be in the Senate.
The House vote was 352 to 65, with 50 Democrats and 15 Republicans voting in opposition. In a rare show of bipartisanship, the measure advanced unanimously out of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, and President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill if it makes it to his desk.
Lawmakers supportive of the bill have argued TikTok poses a national security threat because the Chinese government could use its intelligence laws against TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, forcing it to hand over the data of US app users.
Others have argued that the addictive App posed a great danger to teenagers and the youth generally who are spending long unproductive hours viewing and sharing entertainment content . Parents have lobbyed the USA government to stop children below the age of 16 from assessing the App.
The bill would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the social media platform — used by roughly 170 million Americans — is spun off from ByteDance. The bill would give ByteDance roughly five months to sell TikTok. If not divested by that time, it would be illegal for app store operators such as Apple and Google to make it available for download.
TikTok has called the legislation an attack on the constitutional right to freedom of expression for its users. China’s foreign ministry called the bill an “act of bullying.” In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter), CEO Shou Chew thanked the community of TikTok users, and said the company has invested in keeping user “data safe and our platform free from outside manipulation.” He warned that if the bill is signed into law, it will impact hundreds of thousands of American jobs and take “billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses.”
