The bill to ban TikTok in the US clears Congress after allegations that the app was being used by China to collect data from users
The US Senate on Tuesday approved legislation requiring the wildly popular social media app TikTok to be divested from its Chinese parent company ByteDance or be shut out of the American market.
The measure was part of a $95 billion foreign aid package, including military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, which has now cleared Congress and heads to President Joe Biden's desk.
US and other Western officials have expressed concerns about the popularity of TikTok among young people, alleging that the app allows the Chinese government to collect data and conduct surveillance on its users.
With 170 million users in the United States alone, TikTok has drawn attention and scrutiny from critics who argue that it is beholden to Beijing and serves as a platform for spreading propaganda. China and the company itself strongly deny these allegations.
In response to these concerns, a bill was passed in the Senate with a 79-18 vote, following prior approval by the House of Representatives with significant bipartisan support. This legislation has the potential to result in the rare step of barring a company from operating in the US market. President Joe Biden has indicated his intention to sign the bill into law.
He reiterated his concerns about TikTok in a rare telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping early this month.
TikTok complained after Saturday's House vote, saying it was "unfortunate" that lawmakers sought to "jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate seven million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the US economy, annually."
According to the bill, ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, would be required to sell the app within a year or face exclusion from Apple and Google's app stores in the United States. Steven Mnuchin, who served as the US Treasury Secretary under former President Donald Trump, has expressed interest in acquiring TikTok and has formed a group of investors.
TikTok has been under scrutiny by US authorities for several years, with concerns that the platform enables Beijing to access user data in the United States. However, implementing a ban on TikTok could potentially lead to legal challenges.
The bill passed by Congress grants the US President the authority to designate other applications controlled by countries deemed hostile as threats to national security. This provision gives the President the power to address potential security concerns related to other apps beyond TikTok if they are deemed to pose risks to national security due to their foreign control.
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X, formerly Twitter, came out Friday against banning TikTok, saying "doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression."
