The US House of Representatives has given TikTok six months to divest its US assets or face a ban.
The House voted 352-65 in favour of the bill against the popular short-video app owned by China’s ByteDance, but it is expected to see a closer scrutiny in the Senate.
US lawmakers, along with many other governments across the globe, have feared national security because of China’s influence over TikTok, and have repeatedly expressed concern that users data could be used in the future.
If the bill is approved by the Senate, President Joe Biden has promised to sign it as soon as it lands on his desk.
If ByteDance does not comply with the divestment of its US assets, the bill provides that app stores by Apple and Google will be fined for offering TikTok, or offering web hosting services to ByteDance applications.
Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers said: “We have given TikTok a clear choice. Separate from your parent company ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), and remain operational in the United States, or side with the CCP and face the consequences. The choice is TikTok’s.”
No.2 House Republican Steve Scalise said on social media platform X: “This is a critical national security issue. The Senate must take this up and pass it.”
? BREAKING → The House just passed a bipartisan bill to force TikTok to sever their ties with the Chinese Communist Party.
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) March 13, 2024
This is a critical national security issue. The Senate must take this up and pass it.
The measure is one of many the US government has taken to counteract the growing power of China, including a ban on certain microchips that are critical for artificial intelligence and machine learning computers.
Founded in 2012, the short video app is a Beijing-based firm that is registered in the Cayman Islands. It has 170 million American users.
TikTok ownership bill angers young app users
While hundreds of youngsters protested outside the Capitol against the bill, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the goal was not to ban the app, but ending Chinese ownership.
“Do we want TikTok, as a platform, to be owned by an American company or owned by China? Do we want the data from TikTok – children’s data, adults’ data – to be going, to be staying here in America or going to China?” Sullivan said.
Shou Zi Chew, TikTok CEO, said in a video that the legislation, if signed into law, “will lead to a ban on TikTok in the United States… and would take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses. It will put 300,000 American jobs at risk.”
He added the law will give “more power to a handful of other social media companies” and that his company will “not stop fighting” and will exercise its legal rights to prevent a ban.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said: “Although the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok.
“This kind of bullying behaviour that cannot win in fair competition disrupts companies’ normal business activity, damages the confidence of international investors in the investment environment, and damages the normal international economic and trade order.”
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