The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill on Wednesday that would force TikTok to divest from its Chinese owner or get banned from the United States.
There Were More Votes Against The Ban of Ticktok
Jerrymusa.com reports that lawmakers voted 352 times in favour of the proposed measure and 65 times against it. In a rare instance of bipartisanship in politically divided Washington.
The video-sharing app, which has gained worldwide appeal despite raising concerns about its Chinese ownership and its subordination to the Communist Party in Beijing, faces serious setbacks as a result of the legislation.
“The bill’s future in the Senate is in doubt because several influential senators are wary of taking such a strong stance against an app that has 170 million US users.
“If the measure reaches President Joe Biden’s desk, it will be signed into law as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” according to the White House.
The law, which has only gained traction in the last few days, mandates that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, sell the app within 180 days or risk having it removed from the US versions of the Apple and Google app stores.
Additionally, it grants the president the authority to declare additional applications to be a threat to national security if they are controlled by a nation that the US considers an enemy.
The Wall Street Journal stated that TikTok executives were taken aback by Washington’s renewed push against the app, even though they had been reassured when Biden joined the platform last month as part of his bid for a second term.
Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of TikTok, is in Washington, DC, attempting to rally opposition to the law.
Vice president of public policy at TikTok Michael Beckerman commented, “This latest legislation being rushed through at unprecedented speed without even the benefit of a public hearing poses serious constitutional concerns.”
The White House and the bill’s co-sponsors, House Republicans Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi, contend that “TikTok is not prohibited by the legislation as long as the firm divests from ByteDance.”
China issued a warning on Wednesday, stating that the US will “inevitably pay a price” for the action.
Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin denounced TikTok as “bullying behaviour” and stated, “The United States has not stopped suppressing TikTok even though it has never found evidence that it threatens US national security.”
The bill was adopted by Republican lawmakers in an uncommon show of rebellion against Donald Trump.
Trump on Monday reversed his former position and stated that he opposed the ban, with the principal reason being that it would empower Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, whom he referred to as an “enemy of the people.”
Trump tried to take over Tiktok from ByteDance when he was president, but US courts stopped him.
Trump refuted claims that he changed his mind because hedge funder Jeff Yass, a significant TikTok investor, is contributing to his 2024 campaign.
One of Trump’s allies, Representative Nancy Mace, predicted that the bill would fail in the Senate. “We are not responsible for this.”
Previous attempts to outlaw TikTok have failed; a bill that was put out a year ago was mostly doomed to fail due to worries about free expression.
Similarly, a federal judge suspended a Montana state law that outlawed the platform on the grounds that it might have violated the right to free speech guaranteed by the constitution.
TikTok has reorganised the business such that US customer data remains in China, and the company adamantly denies any connections to the Chinese government.