by A fast-moving proposal from members of Congress could pose one of the biggest threats yet to TikTok’s future in the US.
Bipartisan legislation from the House of Representatives would force the China-based platform to sell a controlling stake or face removal from US app stores.
House Republicans have proposed bringing the bill to the floor for a vote as early as this week, though it’s unclear whether a similar proposal can survive in the Democratic-controlled Senate, which has no partner legislation has yet to be produced.
In recent days, however, President Joe Biden and his Republican rival Donald Trump have clashed, throwing a political wrench into TikTok’s future in the middle of an election year.
The president has indicated he will sign the legislation into law, and Mr Trump appears to have reversed his position and now suggests he would not support a measure that could effectively ban on TikTok in the US.
Their opposition could face a significant political issue as millions of young Americans, including eight million newly eligible young voters, prepare to cast their ballots in the 2024 elections.
If signed into law, the Protecting Americans from Foreign Control Applications Act – co-authored by a group of Republican lawmakers investigating the Chinese Communist Party – would allow federal law enforcement agencies to list certain apps as national security threats if determined to be they settled. under the control of foreign enemies.
Those apps would then be banned from US app stores unless they link to those entities within 180 days.
The move follows pressure from members of Congress and officials across the US to force TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the app over questions about whether China is using TikTok to harvest US users’ data. Lawmakers have also accused TikTok of negatively impacting the mental health of young people.
ByteDance would be forced to sell a mere 20 percent of its TikTok stake to a US-based company to continue operating in the country.
The Independent he asked for comment on TikTok.
On March 7, a House committee advanced the bill on a unanimous 50-0 bipartisan vote, even as TikTok users flooded conference lines with thousands of calls urging lawmakers to back down.
The same day, the former president wrote on his Social Truth that “if you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business,” referring to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“I don’t want Facebook, which rigged the last Election, to get better,” Mr Trump wrote, echoing a baseless conspiracy theory that social media platforms rigged elections against him. “They are the real enemy of the People!”
The former president’s latest comments represent a reversal of his previous support for banning the app. He now says he would have banned the app during his presidency but instead left it up to Congress.
“I was at the point where I could do it if I wanted to,” he told MSNBC’s Squawk Box on the 11th of March. “I should have said, you decide, you make that decision, because there are a lot of people who love it… There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it. There are many users.”
In 2020, Mr Trump issued an executive order banning TikTok which the company successfully challenged in court. His administration pushed Microsoft to acquire the app, and the company partnered with software company Oracle to protect US user data.
The reasons for his reversal are unclear, although he recently spoke at a conference for the influential right-wing group Club for Growth at the request of GOP megadonor Jeff Yass, who has a $20bn stake in ByteDance.
Club for Growth, which Mr Trump has previously blasted as the “Club for No Growth”, is widely expected to spend millions of dollars in the 2024 election cycle to support GOP nominees to face Mr Biden.
A huge injection into his campaign would be a major relief against a tidal wave of costly legal obligations, including nearly half a billion dollars owed to New York after he was found guilty of fraud, and tens of thousands of dollars due to his mounted legal teams. their defense in four criminal cases and a growing list of lawsuits.
President Biden, meanwhile, told reporters on March 8 that if Congress passes the bill, “I will sign it.”
His administration banned TikTok from federal government devices, though his re-election campaign tapped into the app in February.
The legislation also has the support of the Biden administration’s Federal Communications Commission, whose commissioner accused TikTok of “engaging in a pattern of unlawful surveillance and making false statements about personnel in Beijing accessing sensitive data of US users”.
“TikTok’s own behavior clearly shows that it is subject to the CCP and that it is an unacceptable threat to US national security,” said Commissioner Brendan Carr.
The video app “cannot continue to operate in the US as it is now”, he said.
Former Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi said The Independent that she feels “good” about the full House passing the measure on March 13.
Federal law enforcement agencies and lawmakers from both parties, as well as Mr. Trump, have argued that TikTok poses a national security threat. Officials have argued that the Chinese government has or could use TikTok to mine data from its millions of users and display content that could harm users’ opinions, particularly surrounding information designed to manipulate the outcome of the 2024 election.
The Biden administration supported an alternative proposal in the Democratic-led Senate that would aim to address national security concerns about TikTok without trampling on Americans’ First Amendment rights.
Several Republican-led states banned TikTok from government devices, and the state of Montana banned the app entirely, although that law was blocked in federal court.
Last week, a message on the app warned users that the US government will remove “the community you and millions of other Americans love” and asked for support to avoid “shutting down” TikTok.
“This will damage millions of businesses, destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country, and deny artists an audience,” the message read. “Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO. Call now.”
In a letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on March 11, House Representatives Mike Gallagher and Raja Krishnamoorthi called on the company to “stop spreading false claims in its campaign to manipulate and mobilize American citizens on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party “.
“These messages are deceptive,” they wrote. “All TikTok would have to do is CCP-controlled ByteDance. However, if TikTok chose not to remove this CCP control, the application would no longer be offered in US app stores. But nobody would be to blame but TikTok – it would be choosing this path by choosing CCP control over Americans’ privacy and national security.
The bill gives TikTok a “simple option,” according to Mr. Gallagher, the Republican co-chairman of the House Select Committee on CCP. “Either side with its users… and let people speak free from fear of propaganda or censorship, or side with the Chinese Communist Party.”
