Citing India’s bold move to ban TikTok in 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on March 13, that would give TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest the U.S. assets of the short-video app, or face a ban.
The bill passed 352-65 in a lopsided bipartisan vote, but it faces a more uncertain path in the Senate where some favour a different approach to regulating foreign-owned apps posing security concerns.
The legislation threatens to be a major setback for the video-sharing app, which has surged in popularity across the world while causing nervousness about its Chinese ownership and its potential subservience to the Communist Party in Beijing. The fate of the bill is uncertain in the Senate, where some key figures are apprehensive of making such a drastic move against an app that has 170 million US users.
President Joe Biden will sign the bill, known officially as the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” into law if it came to his desk, the White House has said.
Several senators have already raised concerns about the legislation as it is currently written. For example, because the bill’s text explicitly names TikTok and ByteDance, some are worried it could violate a part of of the Constitution that bars Congress from targeting specific entities with legislation.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video posted Wednesday the legislation if signed into law “will lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States… and would take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses. It will put 300,000 American jobs at risk.” He added the company will “not stop fighting” and will exercise its legal rights to prevent a ban.
The resurgent campaign by Washington against TikTok came as a surprise to the company, the Wall Street Journal reported, with TikTok executives reassured when Biden joined the app last month as part of his campaign for a second term.
The measure is the latest in a series of moves in Washington to respond to U.S. national security concerns about China, from connected vehicles to advanced artificial intelligence chips to cranes at U.S. ports.
Several dozen TikTok users rallied outside the Capitol before the vote. The company paid for their travel to Washington and accommodations, a TikTok spokesperson said.
However, the political climate is growing in favor of the bill. President Joe Biden said last week he would sign it and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on March 12, asked “Do we want TikTok, as a platform, to be owned by an American company or owned by China? Do we want he data from TikTok – children’s data, adults’ data – to be going, to be staying here in America or going to China?”
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.
“In 2020, India banned 59 Chinese-created apps, including TikTok, emphasizing their priority to defend India’s national security,” a statement by the office of Congressman Greg Murphy said. “Lack of transparency from TikTok executives and their unwillingness to protect user privacy and information have also encouraged neighbouring governments like the European Union and Canada to prohibit the use of the application on government devices,” it added.
At the time, TikTok had nearly 200 million users in India, according to Bloomberg. Besides India, TikTok is banned in Canada, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Australia, and Norway among other countries.
Change in Trump’s Tune for TikTok ban
Republican lawmakers approved the bill, in an unusual act of defiance against Donald Trump. In a turnaround from his earlier stance, Trump on March 11 said he was 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 2024 election campaign.
Meanwhile, it is unclear whether China would approve any sale or if TikTok’s U.S. assets could be divested in six months. If ByteDance failed to do so, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet’s Google and others could not legally offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry criticised the legislation Tuesday, arguing “though the U.S. has never found any evidence of TikTok posing a threat to the U.S.’s national security, it has never stopped going after TikTok.” China warned on March 13 that the move will “inevitably come back to bite the United States.”
Skepticism still clouds whether it will survive in the Senate. Previous efforts to ban the app 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 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.
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