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U.S. Lawmakers Propose Legislation Giving ByteDance About Six Months To Divest Popular TikTok Or Face Ban
A bill was presented by a group of US politicians that would force ByteDance, a Chinese internet firm, to sell off the popular TikTok app within six months or risk being banned.
Legislative aides to congressional leaders announced to reporters that a bipartisan coalition of US lawmakers is introducing legislation on Tuesday that would give China's ByteDance roughly six months to remove the popular short video app TikTok or risk being banned from the US.
U.S. Lawmakers Propose Legislation
To address national security concerns raised by Chinese ownership of the app, Representatives Raja Krishnamoorthi, the senior Democrat, and Mike Gallagher, the chair of the House Select China committee, are presenting legislation. Over a dozen other lawmakers have also joined them in this effort.
Gallagher said, "This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users. America’s foremost adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States."
The bill would make it illegal for app stores run by Apple, Google, and other companies to offer TikTok or to provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications. ByteDance would have 165 days to divest TikTok, which is used by over 170 million Americans. The measure would forbid any kind of enforcement directed at specific users of an app that is impacted.
According to TikTok, it hasn't shared user data from Americans with the Chinese government and won't. Senate measure to outlaw the widely used app was put on hold in Congress last year due to strong TikTok lobbying. After almost a year, the bill is the first major legislative step toward outlawing the software or compelling ByteDance to sell it.
The bill, which would necessitate Senate companion legislation, will be discussed and maybe put to a vote on Thursday during an Energy and Commerce Committee meeting. It could seriously jeopardize ByteDance's ownership of TikTok. The bill, according to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, will "prevent foreign adversaries, such as China, from surveilling and manipulating the American people through online applications like TikTok."
Nevertheless, a lot of people use the app, and passing legislation during an election year could be challenging. The Democratic presidential campaign for Joe Biden joined TikTok last month.
The law would allow the president to designate applications that pose a danger to national security and that might be banned or subject to limitations in the absence of divestiture. Apps that "are under the control of a foreign adversary entity and have over one million annual active users" would be subject to it.
Congress worked to expand its authority to confront and perhaps outlaw the well-known app for sharing short videos, TikTok after worries about the Chinese-owned company surfaced last year. Senator Mark Warner and more than two dozen other senators sponsored legislation last year to give the administration new powers to ban TikTok and other foreign-based technologies if they pose a threat to national security.
According to Reuters, the U.S. Treasury-led Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) ordered in March 2023 that TikTok's Chinese owners relinquish their holdings or risk the app being banned. Nevertheless, the administration did not take any action.
The new bill intends to strengthen the legal authorities to deal with issues related to TikTok. In 2020, Republican Donald Trump, Biden's predecessor, attempted to outlaw TikTok, but U.S. courts blocked it. Late in November, a U.S. judge struck down Montana's historic state ban on TikTok, citing violations of users' free expression rights.
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