TikTok in crosshairs again: Bipartisan bill seeks to force ByteDance to divest app or face ban
NY Post
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers is introducing legislation on Tuesday that would give China’s ByteDance about six months to divest popular short video app TikTok or face a US ban.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, the Republican chair of the House’s select China committee and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat, are introducing legislation along with more than a dozen other lawmakers to address national security concerns posed by Chinese ownership of the app, aides said.
“Applications like TikTok that are controlled by foreign adversaries pose an unacceptable risk to US national security,” the lawmakers said in a fact sheet.
TikTok did not immediately comment.
The bill would give ByteDance 165 days to divest TikTok, which is used by more than 170 million Americans, or it would be unlawful for app stores operated by Apple, Google and others to offer TikTok or to provide web hosting services to ByteDance-controlled applications.
The bill would not authorize any enforcement against individual users of an affected app.
