The House of Representatives in the United States has passed a bill with bipartisan support that could ban TikTok in the nation.
The passed bill, titled the ‘Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,’ targets apps deemed to be national security threats due to ownership by foreign adversaries.
U.S. fears that TikTok, and more importantly, its Beijing-based owner ByteDance, work under the Chinese government and that it could share data about TikTok’s U.S. users with the government. TikTok, on multiple occasions, has claimed that the Chinese government has never made such claims, and even if it did, TikTok is not required to comply.
The bill will now go to the Senate for consideration. If passed, it will ultimately end up on U.S. President Joe Biden’s desk, who said he will sign the bill into law.
Essentially, the bill would prohibit app stores like Apple’s and Google’s from offering applications controlled by ‘foreign adversaries.’
The only way out for ByteDance would be to divest its holdings and control of TikTok. Otherwise, it could lose over 170 million American users. “This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
In Canada, TikTok is banned on federal government devices.
If the bill becomes law, ByteDance will have 165 days to divest its ownership. Read the complete report here. In other TikTok-related news, the app might be working on a standalone Instagram-like photo-sharing platform.
Header image credit: Shutterstock
Via: Variety
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