by As American lawmakers again sounded the alarm over TikTok’s ties to China’s communist regime, the US House Energy and Commerce committee voted unanimously to approve a bill that would give China’s ByteDance 165 days to divest its TikTok ownership – or effectively face the US ban.
Speaker Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) introduced the bill, “Protecting Americans from Foreign Control Requests Act,” on March 5. If enacted, the bill would block apps controlled by ByteDance, including TikTok, from being available in Apple or Google’s app stores or on web hosting services in the United States, unless such an app requires that “with entities such as ByteDance that are subject to regulation. foreign enemy.” It passed Thursday in the House Energy and Commerce committee in a 50-0 vote.
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TikTok has been a political football for several years, dating back to the Trump administration. The short video app, popular in the US and elsewhere, has been a target of American lawmakers – on both sides of the aisle – who are concerned about its ties to China and how TikTok handles user data. USA. .
Earlier on Thursday, the TikTok app displayed an alert to users in the US urging them to oppose the legislation that said, “Stop a TikTok shutdown” and encouraged them to call their congressional representatives with the message, “Let the Convey what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO.” That led to a deluge of phone calls to offices on Capitol Hill, according to the New York Times, citing social media posts.
In a statement after the House committee vote, TikTok said, “This legislation has a predetermined outcome: a total ban on TikTok in the United States. The government is trying to strip 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression. This will damage millions of businesses, deny artists an audience, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country.”
The ACLU also broke the committee’s vote on the TikTok bill. “We are deeply disappointed that the committee chose to ignore the serious First Amendment concerns raised by civil liberties groups and instead voted to advance this bill,” said Jenna Leventoff, senior policy counsel by the ACLU, in a statement. “As the overwhelming number of calls from constituents to Congress attests, TikTok is a critical platform for accessing information and expressing ourselves. When this bill comes to the floor for a vote, we urge representatives to stand up for free speech, and vote down this misguided bill.”
In addition to requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok or be banned in the United States, the bill creates “a process for the President to designate certain specifically defined social media applications that are subject to the control of a foreign adversary” and “national security create. risk.” The text of the bill is available at this link.
“My message to TikTok is this: break up with the Chinese Communist Party or lose access to your American users,” said Gallagher, who chairs the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. , in a statement issued on Tuesday. “America’s main adversary has no business controlling a dominant media platform in the United States. TikTok’s time in the US is over unless it ends its relationship with CCP-controlled ByteDance.
TikTok has regularly said it has not shared, nor received a request to share, US user data with the Chinese government (and TikTok says it would not honor such a request if one were ever made). Appearing at a controversial consolidated hearing in March 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew claimed that the app is “not owned or controlled by any government or state entity.” About 60% of ByteDance is owned by “global institutional investors” including Blackrock, General Atlantic, Susquehanna International Group and Sequoia, with 20% owned by the company’s Chinese founders and 20% owned by other employees, according to TikTok.
Meanwhile, last year, the US government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency group that oversees national security risks led by the Treasury Department, demanded that TikTok’s Chinese owners ByteDance eviction under threat of ban.
Montana last year became the first US state to pass a law banning TikTok. But a federal judge blocked the legislation before it took effect on January 1, 2024 – ruling that it oversteps state power and violates the Constitutional rights of consumers and businesses.”
TikTok has been banned by the Indian government, citing security concerns over Chinese ownership of the app, since June 2020.
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