US House passes bill that would ban TikTok amid national security concerns
Al Jazeera
The bill now heads to an uncertain future in the Senate, though President Biden has pledged to sign it if it passes.
The United States House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that could eventually ban the social media platform TikTok in the country, in its latest salvo against both China and big tech.
The bill received resoundingly bipartisan support, with vote of 352 to 65 in favour. It now heads to the 100-member Senate, where its prospects are less clear. For his part, President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill into law if it reached his desk.
If that happened, TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance would be given about six months to divest from its US assets or see its video-sharing app banned in the US.
The legislation stems from concerns that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese government. Government officials have expressed fears that the data TikTok collects from its roughly 170 million American users could pose a national security threat.
Recent national security laws passed in China, which can compel organisations to assist with intelligence gathering, have further buoyed those concerns.
