The US House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill that could lead to Tiktok being banned in the United States. It is unclear whether the Senate will agree.
Tiktok creators demonstrate against the ban of their platform in front of the Capitol in Washington on March 12. Photo: Craig Hudson/Reuters
WASHINGTON afp | The US House of Representatives passed a law that could lead to the ban of the popular video platform Tiktok in the United States. Lawmakers on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill, which threatens Chinese parent company Bytedance with a ban on the app in the United States if it does not sell it within 180 days. Bytedance is suspected of giving the Chinese Communist Party access to user data.
In a rare act of bipartisan unity, the anti-Tiktok legislative initiative has support in the House of Representatives from both dominant opposition Republicans and President Joe Biden's Democrats. House approval of the project was therefore considered certain.
However, the approval required by the Senate – the other chamber of Congress – is also uncertain. Some influential senators have spoken out against the bill. Former Republican president and expected renewed presidential candidate Donald Trump also opposed the Tiktok ban this week.
The White House, however, has already announced that Biden will sign the bill when it is approved by both houses of Congress and thus put it into effect. Beijing criticized the proposed law on Wednesday as “bullying behavior” and vaguely warned that the measure would “inevitably cause more problems for the United States.”
Biden's debut
The proposed law would give the US president the authority to classify other apps as threats to national security if they are controlled by a country the US government considers hostile.
Federal authorities in the United States have banned Tiktok on work mobile phones for data protection reasons. However, previous efforts to ban the app nationwide had failed.
Biden also made his debut just four weeks ago on the platform, which is especially popular among young people and has around 170 million users in the United States. In a video published by Biden's campaign team, the president talks about the election campaign and the “Super Bowl”, the final of the American football league.
According to a report from Wall Street Journal Bytedance saw Biden's video as a reassuring sign that Tiktok was not threatened in the US and was even more surprised when the legislative initiative became more concrete in the House of Representatives.
Tiktok boss Shou Zi Chew traveled to Washington and tried to stop the draft from being approved at the last minute. “This latest legislation, passed at unprecedented speed and without a useful public hearing, raises serious constitutional concerns,” Tiktok executive Michael Beckerman wrote in a letter to House representatives seen by AFP.
Trump's 180-degree turn
A law passed last year in the US state of Montana to ban Tiktok was suspended by a federal court, which deemed it a potential threat to free speech. Tiktok also denies any ties to the Chinese government. The company also claims that it has been restructured so that user data remains in the US.
Trump, for his part, made a 180-degree turn in his attitude towards Tiktok. During his presidency, he campaigned to take control of the app away from Bytedance. On Monday, however, he spoke out on CNBC against banning Tiktok, arguing that it would only strengthen American online giant Meta and its founder Mark Zuckerberg.
Trump accuses Zuckerberg of being hostile towards him. In the interview, the former president described Facebook as the “enemy of the people,” a controversial label that he often uses for media outlets he does not like. At the same time, the right-wing populist denied changing his stance on Tiktok just because Bytedance investor Jeff Yass supported his election campaign with donations.
Tiktok has long surpassed Facebook and Instagram in terms of usage times. Tiktok has more than one billion users around the world.