TikTok: Chamber approves ban in the United States – 03/13/2024 – Market

The House on Wednesday passed a bill with broad bipartisan support that would force TikTok’s Chinese owner to sell the wildly popular video app or be banned in the United States. The move intensifies a confrontation between Beijing and Washington over control of technologies that could affect national security, freedom of expression and the social media industry.

Republican leaders fast-tracked the bill through the House with limited debate, and it passed by an overwhelming vote of 352-65, reflecting broad support for legislation that would directly target China in an election year.

The action was taken despite TikTok’s efforts to mobilize its 170 million U.S. users against the measure, and amid the Biden administration’s effort to persuade lawmakers that Chinese ownership of the platform poses grave risks to U.S. national security. .

The result was a bipartisan coalition behind the measure that included Republicans, who defied former President Donald Trump by supporting it, and Democrats, who also moved forward with a bill that President Joe Biden said he would sign.

The bill faces a difficult path to passage in the Senate, where Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, has not committed to bringing it to the floor for a vote and where some lawmakers have vowed to fight it.

TikTok has been under threat since 2020, with lawmakers increasingly arguing that China’s relationship with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, raises national security risks. The bill aims to have ByteDance sell TikTok to non-Chinese owners within six months. The president would approve the sale if it resolved national security concerns. If this sale did not occur, the application would be banned.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., who is among the lawmakers leading the bill, said on the floor before the vote that it “forces TikTok to break with the Chinese Communist Party.”

“This is a sensible step to protect our national security,” he said.

If the bill became law, it would likely deepen a cold war between the United States and China over control of key technologies.

The legislative initiative is so far the biggest threat facing the short video app, which is very popular around the world, especially among young people.

Because it has a Chinese parent company, Tik Tok is a concern for the United States and other countries, which consider that the platform allows Beijing to spy on and manipulate around 170 million users in the United States.

President Joe Biden will enact the rule, officially known as the “Protecting Americans from Controlled Solicitations by Foreign Rivals Act,” once it passes both legislative chambers, the White House announced.