On March 13, the US House of Representatives officially passed a bill forcing TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the short video app within 6 months. Otherwise, TikTok will face the risk of being banned from operating in the US.
The bill was passed by a 352-65 vote from both Democrats and Republicans, but there is no guarantee it will pass the Senate anytime soon.
"This is a major national security issue. The Senate must consider this and pass it," Steve Scalise, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, said on social media X after the vote.
TikTok supporters protest outside the US Capitol building as the House of Representatives passed a bill forcing ByteDance to divest on March 13. (Photo: ABC News)
The fate of TikTok, which is used by about 170 million Americans, has become a hot-button issue in Washington, with lawmakers saying their offices have received numerous calls from teenage TikTok users protesting the bill.
TikTok CEO Zhou Shusi said in a statement on March 13 that if the bill is signed into law, there is a high possibility that TikTok will be banned in the US. He also emphasized that users of the app (digital content creators, small and medium-sized businesses) in the US will lose billions of dollars in income and affect 300,000 American workers who are currently benefiting from TikTok.
TikTok's CEO said his company will "relentlessly fight" and will exercise its legal rights to stop the ban.
The bill to force ByteDance is the latest in a series of moves in Washington to respond to US national security concerns about China, from mobile devices to chips for artificial intelligence development to cranes at US ports.
US President Joe Biden said last week that he would sign a bill against TikTok if it was passed by the US Congress.
According to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan: "We want TikTok as a platform to be owned by an American company and not belong to China. The US wants data from TikTok to stay in the US instead of being sent to China."
China's Foreign Ministry criticized the law on March 12, saying that the US has never found any evidence that TikTok poses a threat to US national security but has always pursued measures to block TikTok.
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