On Saturday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would force TikTok to be sold or banned nationwide. This time, a new version of the bill—which had previously passed the House in March but had stalled in the Senate—was included in a foreign aid package, which suggests that it will probably now be given more priority. Originally, the bill threatened to prohibit TikTok from US app stores and handed ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, six months to sell the app if it became law. ByteDance would have up to a year to divest under the amended version.
The AP reports that the bill was approved by the House by a vote of 360-58. The Senate will now consider it and may take a vote on it in a few days. The Senate is trying to come to a consensus on when to hold the next vote on the foreign aid package that includes the TikTok bill, although this coming Tuesday is anticipated, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. In the past, President Joe Biden has stated that he would back the plan if Congress approved it.
Because of its connections to China, the law portrays TikTok as a threat to national security. At least 170 million Americans use the app, according to TikTok, and ByteDance isn’t going to go down without a fight. The TikTok Policy account argued that such a rule would “trample the free speech rights” of these users, “devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually” in a statement that was put on X earlier this week. A further claim made by the bill’s opponents is that prohibiting TikTok will not significantly safeguard the data of Americans.
