TikTok says the US House of Representatives bill to ban the app will "trample" on freedom of speech
Kyiv • UNN
TikTok expresses concern over a US House of Representatives bill that could ban the app, saying it would "trample" on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, while lawmakers cite national security risks from potential data sharing with China.
TikTok expresses concern about a bill passed by the US House of Representatives that could ban the app. UNN writes about this with reference to Reuters.
It's unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian aid to push through legislation to ban an app that will trample on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans
Some Democrats have also expressed concerns about freedom of speech in connection with the ban and have asked for stronger data privacy laws instead.
Democratic representative Ro Khanna said that the ban on TikTok may not stand up to legal scrutiny in court, citing the protection of freedom of speech provided for in the Constitution.
Context
On Saturday , the House of Representatives approved a billthat could ban the popular app in America if the Chinese owner of ByteDance does not sell its stake within a year. The bill now moves to the Senate. President Joe Biden has previously stated that he will sign the TikTok bill into law.
Many US lawmakers from both the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as representatives of the Biden administration, say that TikTok poses a threat to national security, as China could force the company to share the data of its 170 million US users.
TikTok insists that it has never shared citizen data and never will.
Democratic Senator Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Sunday that TikTok could be used by the Chinese government as a propaganda tool, noting that "a lot of young people" use TikTok to get news.
The idea that we would give the Communist Party such a propaganda tool, as well as the ability to scrape the personal data of 170 million Americans, is a national security risk
