U.S. House passes bill to ban, sell TikTok

The United States House of Representatives has recently passed a bill requiring TikTok to be banned or sold entirely in the United States.

Although this issue has lingered as far back as the Trump administration, it has been revived recently. A report on Bloomberg revealed that ByteDance is now expected to sell off TikTok in 9 months instead of 6 months, which was drawn in a previous bill in March.

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“This bill protects Americans and especially America’s children from the malign influence of Chinese propaganda on the app TikTok. This app is a spy balloon in Americans’ phones,” Michael McCaul, author of the bill, said.

The passage of the updated version of the bill came after Maria Cantwell, the Senate commerce committee chair, urged the House in March to revise the bill’s details, which now extends TikTok’s parent company ByteDance’s divestment period from six months to a year.

In a statement, Cantwell said, “As I’ve said, extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done. I support this updated legislation.”

Critics of the popular social media app argue that ByteDance, based in China, could collect user data and censor content that is critical of the Chinese government. In March, Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, warned in a House intelligence committee hearing that China could use TikTok to influence the US’s 2024 presidential elections.

Meanwhile, TikTok has repeatedly said it has no plan to share US user data with the Chinese government.

The company said, “TikTok is an independent platform with its leadership team, including a CEO based in Singapore, a COO based in the US, and a global head of trust and safety based in Ireland.”

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In an earlier response to the House’s then-upcoming vote, TikTok expressed its displeasure at the bill and the US’s ability to “shutter a platform that contributes $24bn to the US economy, annually.”