After a US House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to ban TikTok unless its Chinese parent company divests, two heavyweight candidates running for the White House had mixed reactions and opinions.
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| US bill would ban TikTok from app stores unless ByteDance divests from the platform. Illustration photo. (Source: Reuters) |
The bill, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign-Controlled Apps Act, is set to be voted on in the House next week. If passed by the House, it will need to be sent to the Senate before being signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Previously, on March 8, Mr. Biden announced that he would sign the bill if it was passed by the House of Representatives.
The law allows the president to designate TikTok and other foreign-controlled apps as a national security threat. TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, must divest all of its assets within 180 days or face removal from U.S. app stores.
In response to the US Congressional bill, TikTok has launched a lobbying campaign, including trying to mobilize TikTok's user base.
A TikTok spokesperson confirmed that the app sent a notice to many US users over the age of 18. The notice said that “ the government is trying to take away the constitutional right to free speech of 170 million Americans.” TikTok also encouraged users to contact members of Congress to protest the bill.
Multiple congressional staffers said House offices were inundated with calls, with some receiving hundreds of calls as part of TikTok’s lobbying campaign.
Despite the situation, the House Energy and Commerce Committee (HECC) passed the bill with a unanimous vote of 50. The bill will be presented to the House on March 12 or 13, and will need a two-thirds majority to pass.
“The bill doesn’t ban TikTok, it gives the app the option to cut ties with China,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher, a Republican from Wisconsin. “As long as ByteDance no longer owns the company, TikTok can still exist. Users can still make videos or communicate with friends on the TikTok platform.”
Unlike Mr. Biden, former President Donald Trump unexpectedly voiced his support for TikTok. “If you take TikTok out, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” Mr. Trump posted on the social network Truth Social. He added that he did not want Facebook to “do better,” accusing Mark Zuckerberg’s company of cheating in the previous election and calling the social platform “the real enemy of the people.”
During his term, in 2020, Mr. Trump wanted to ban TikTok if the company did not find an American buyer. However, according to Reuters , Mr. Trump, who is seeking to return to the White House in the November election, has now expressed his opposition to banning TikTok.
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