The US House of Representatives has passed a fairly significant landmark bill on Wednesday that could potentially ban the Chinese video app TikTok in America.
This would give the social media giant’s parent company, ByteDance, six months to sell its controlling stake or the app would be permanently blocked in the US. TikTok is originally owned by Chinese company ByteDance, founded in 2012. This Beijing-based firm is registered in the Cayman Islands and has offices across Europe and the US.
While the bill did manage to pass rather overwhelmingly in a bipartisan vote, it still needs to clear the Senate and be signed by the President to become law. With China’s heavy influence over TikTok controversies, lawmakers have held these concerns for very long.
If the bill does manage to secure an approval in the Senate , the President Joe Biden has promised to sign it as soon as it lands on his desk, which result into a beginning of what’s called a “diplomatic spat” with China.
Chinese stakes in TikTok
With critical situations in hand, ByteDance would have to seek approval from Chinese officials to complete a forced divestiture, which Beijing has vowed to oppose.
“Come back to bite the US”, says Foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Webin.
Mike Gallagher, a Wisconsin Republican who co-authored the bill said that US could not take the risk of having a dominant news platform in America controlled in any way or even owned by a company that is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party.
The Chinese companies are subjected to share their data with the government a matter of national security law upon request. “The platform is free from outside manipulation and the company was committed to keeping its data secure”, said Shou Zi Chew, TikTok Chief Executive Officer(CEO).
He warned that if the bill is passed that would mean a ban on the app for the US users, giving “more powers to a handful of other social media companies” and putting thousands of American jobs at a risk of unemployment.
However, in the investigation by the Wall Street Journal in January found the system was still “porous”, with data being unofficially shared between TikTok in the US and ByteDance in China. There are high profile incidents where ByteDance employees in China have allegedly accessed a journalist’s data to track down their sources, have stirred concerns.
Multiple Democrats have been speaking in the favor of the bill where Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House-welcomed the bill, saying it would decrease “the likelihood that TikTok user data is exploited and privacy undermined by a hostile foreign adversary.”
Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader said that the chamber would now review the legislation.But with Republican White House candidate -Donald Trump speaking out against the bill the prospect of it in the upper chamber of Congress are highly doubtful.
The former president, who tried to ban the app during his term in office, changed his position after a recent meeting with Republican donor Jeff Yass, who reportedly owns a minor stake in ByteDance. A Georgia Republican,, Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on social media that the bill has the possibility to allow the Congress to force the sale of other corporations by claiming to be protecting US data from foreign adversaries.
Some democrats also opposed to a ban, fearing it could alienate the app’s youthful userbase as they might get offended from the app getting banned as the party will equally suffer to retain its hold over younger voters.
However, even after their “youth” concerns, the Senate intelligence committee welcomed the House vote.
Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Marco Rubio, a Republican, said they were determined tp shephard the bill through the chamber.
They said in a statement,” We are united in our concern about the national security threat posed by TikTok-a platform with enormous power to influence and divide. Americans whose parent company ByteDance remains legally required to do the bidding of the Chinese Communist Party”.
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