Is time running out for TikTok? New bill would force TikTok to cut off China or face ban:-A group of lawmakers from both parties presented a new bill on Tuesday that would ban China’s ByteDance from the US for six months if it doesn’t sell off TikTok. They said the bill was necessary to protect national security.
Is time running out for TikTok? New bill would force TikTok to cut off China or face ban
The incredibly popular app might be facing its biggest danger yet in the form of the new law.
“This is my message to TikTok: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, who is the Republican head of the House’s China committee. “The United States’ biggest enemy has no right to run the most important news outlet in the country.”
China owns TikTok, which is a national security concern for Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the committee. He said that the bill protects American social media users from “the digital surveillance and influence operations of regimes that could weaponize their personal data against them.”
The bill says that TikTok must cut ties with its parent company ByteDance or be blocked by web hosts and app shops in the United States. It has been backed by more than a dozen people, including Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is in charge of the Republicans in the House.
TikTok said that the bill would only give ByteDance 180 days to find a buyer with the money to buy TikTok and work out the technology problems that come with splitting it off.
TikTok said in an email, “This bill is a complete ban of TikTok, no matter how hard the authors try to hide it.” “This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs.”
A Republican from Texas named Dan Crenshaw replied on the social media site X, “No one is trying to hide anything.” We need to get rid of TikTok. “You are right.”
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TikTok says it doesn’t give the Chinese government information about its U.S. users.
A Wall Street Journal story says that TikTok has tried to reassure US officials by saying that it has spent $1.5 billion on an operation called Project Texas that keeps U.S. user data safe. However, the system is not completely secure.
In addition to giving President Joe Biden the power to say that other apps are run by a “foreign adversary,” the bill has support from both parties. It will be discussed at a meeting Thursday by the Energy and Commerce Committee. In the past, attempts to pass laws have stopped.
Jameel Jaffer, who runs the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said that the bill makes him worry about the First Amendment.
“Congress can protect data privacy and security without banning Americans from accessing one of the world’s most popular communications platforms,” Jaffer said in a press release. “First, it should pass a broad privacy law that limits the kinds of data that TikTok and other platforms can gather.” Americans should only be banned from foreign media as a last option.
While Trump was president and Biden was vice president, the company was under a lot of scrutiny because of its ties with Beijing.
Last year, the Biden administration told the Chinese owners of TikTok that they had to sell their shares or risk being banned. It also backed a bill in the Senate that would have given the White House new power to ban TikTok and other apps from other countries that are dangerous to national security, but the bill was never put to a vote.
Biden’s bid for re-election just joined the app to reach out to younger voters.
Donald Trump, who was president from 2016 to 2020, tried to ban TikTok but the courts stopped him.
The first state ban on TikTok was stopped by a federal judge in November because it violated users’ free speech rights.