The bill, unanimously passed by the US House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday (August 7), calls on ByteDance - TikTok's parent company - to divest ownership of the app or face a US ban.
House Speaker Mike Johnson also supports the bill, but the Senate has not yet taken a similar step. The bill needs to be approved by both parties before it reaches President Joe Biden's desk. "If they pass it, I'll sign it," Biden told reporters when asked about the legislation.
Mr. Biden once joined TikTok in hopes of attracting young voters. Photo: Daily Star
If enacted, the bill would place restrictions that would prevent TikTok and other ByteDance apps from appearing on Apple or Google app stores, or on web hosting services in the US.
The bill has two tracks. First, it requires ByteDance to divest TikTok and its other apps within 180 days of the bill’s enactment, or those apps will be banned in the US.
Second, the bill creates a narrow process that would allow law enforcement to ban access to an app owned by ByteDance if it poses a threat to US security.
Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) have warned that ByteDance may share user data such as browsing history, location, and biometric identifiers with regulators in China. TikTok denies this and says it would not do so even if asked, and the US has not provided evidence that TikTok has stolen data.
Last month, the AP and NORC released a poll that found Americans are deeply divided on the issue of banning TikTok. According to the poll, 31% of U.S. adults support a nationwide ban on TikTok, while 35% oppose a ban. Additionally, 31% of adults said they neither support nor oppose a ban on the popular video -sharing app.
TikTok’s roughly 170 million U.S. users are less concerned about the app sharing user data. About 25% of daily users said they were “extremely or very concerned” about the possibility of the Chinese government collecting personal information from U.S. users.
Ngoc Anh (according to AP)
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