TikTok faces a potential ban in the United States: House of Representatives passes bill

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that gives Chinese TikTok owner ByteDance about six months to divest itself of the U.S. assets of the short video app used by about 170 million Americans or face a ban, UNN reports citing Reuters.

Details

The bill was passed by 352 votes to 65 with the support of both parties, but in the US Senate, the newspaper writes, "it faces a more uncertain path, with some advocating a different approach to regulating foreign-owned apps that could pose security concerns." The leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, did not say how he plans to proceed.

The fate of TikTok has become a major issue in Washington. Democratic and Republican lawmakers said that their offices have received a large number of calls from teenage TikTok users opposing the law, with the volume of complaints sometimes exceeding the number of calls asking for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the newspaper noted.

The measure is also the latest in a series of moves by Washington to respond to U.S. national security concerns about China, from connected vehicles to advanced artificial intelligence chips and cranes in U.S. ports.

The vote came a little more than a week after the bill was proposed after one public hearing with little debate, and after congressional action stalled for more than a year. Last month, US President Joe Biden's re-election campaign joined TikTok, raising hopes among TikTok officials that the law is unlikely to be passed this year, the newspaper writes.

Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 50 to 0 in favor of the bill, putting it to a vote before the full House of Representatives.

TikTok CEO Shu Ji Chu will visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday during a previously scheduled trip to speak with senators, a source briefed on the matter said.

"This law has a predetermined outcome: a complete ban on TikTok in the United States," the company said before the vote.

"The government is trying to deprive 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to freedom of expression," the company added.

Last week, Biden said he would sign the bill. Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Tuesday that the goal is to end Chinese ownership of it, not to ban TikTok.

"Do we want TikTok as a platform to be owned by an American company or to be owned by China? Do we want the data from TikTok - children's data, adult data - to be, to stay here in America, or to go to China?" he said.

It is unclear whether China will approve the sale or whether TikTok's assets in the US could be divested in six months.

If ByteDance fails to do so, app stores operated by Apple, Alphabet Google and others will not be able to offer TikTok or provide web hosting services to apps controlled by ByteDance under US law.

Addendum

In 2020, then-President Donald Trump tried to ban TikTok and China-owned WeChat, but the attempt was blocked by a court. In recent days, he has expressed concern about the ban.

Any divestiture of TikTok in the US will almost certainly face legal challenges, with the company having to file the relevant documents within 165 days of the bill being signed by the president.

In November, a U.S. judge blocked Montana's ban on TikTok after the company filed a lawsuit.