US House passes bill that would ban TikTok amid national security concerns | Technology News

The US Home of Representatives has overwhelmingly handed a invoice that would eventually ban the social media platform TikTok within the nation, in its newest salvo towards each China and massive tech.

The invoice acquired resoundingly bipartisan help, with vote of 352 to 65 in favour. It now heads to the 100-member Senate, the place its prospects are much less clear. For his half, President Joe Biden has stated he would signal the invoice into legislation if it reached his desk.

If that occurred, TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor ByteDance can be given about six months to divest from its US property or see its video-sharing app banned within the US.

The laws stems from considerations that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese language authorities. Authorities officers have expressed fears that the information TikTok collects from its roughly 170 million American customers may pose a nationwide safety menace.

Latest nationwide security laws handed in China, which might compel organisations to help with intelligence gathering, have additional buoyed these considerations.

Bytedance, nevertheless, has repeatedly maintained it operates independently of the Chinese language authorities.

Talking on Wednesday, US Consultant Cathy McMorris Rodgers stated the laws has “given TikTok a transparent selection”.

“Separate out of your dad or mum firm ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP [the Chinese Communist Party], and stay operational in the US, or aspect with the CCP and face the implications,” she stated. “The selection is TikTok’s.”

Opponents of Wednesday’s invoice cited considerations about freedom of speech and known as the transfer a knee-jerk effort that falls in need of significant reform.

“Moderately than goal one firm in a rushed and secretive course of, Congress ought to move complete information privateness protections and do a greater job of informing the general public of the threats these corporations might pose to nationwide safety,” Consultant Barbara Lee, a progressive stalwart, posted on the social media platform X.

TikTok decries ‘ban’

Prematurely of the Home vote, a high nationwide safety official within the Biden administration held a closed-door briefing with legislators to debate TikTok and its nationwide safety implications.

In the meantime, each Republican and Democratic legislators reported a flood of calls from TikTok customers in opposition to the laws.

Voted NO on the TikTok invoice.

Not solely are there 1st modification considerations, that is dangerous coverage.

We should always create precise requirements & laws round privateness violations throughout social media corporations—not goal platforms we don’t like.

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 13, 2024

A number of TikTok supporters, together with outstanding content material creators on the platform, gathered in entrance of the US Capitol on Wednesday upfront of the vote. The corporate additionally issued an announcement opposing the vote.

“This course of was secret, and the invoice was jammed by way of for one cause: It’s a ban,” TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek stated in an announcement.

“We’re hopeful that the Senate will think about the details, take heed to their constituents, and realise the affect on the financial system, seven million small companies and the 170 million People who use our service.”

Will TikTok be unavailable within the US?

Tiktok’s future within the Senate stays unsure. Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, has stated he’ll seek the advice of with related committee chairs to find out the invoice’s path.

For his or her half, Democratic and Republican leaders of the US Senate Intelligence Committee stated they had been inspired by the invoice’s passage within the Home.

“[We] sit up for working collectively to get this invoice handed by way of the Senate and signed into legislation,” Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio stated in an announcement.

TikTok is about to stay obtainable within the US for the foreseeable future.

If the invoice had been to be handed into legislation, ByteDance would have six months to divest earlier than a ban can be imposed. A sale in that period of time is feasible, however the timeline can be tight for such a big acquisition.

Failure to adjust to the deadline would imply that US-based app shops couldn’t legally supply TikTok or present web-hosting companies for ByteDance-controlled functions.

However any pressured divestment would virtually actually face prolonged authorized challenges. ByteDance would want to file an enchantment inside 165 days of the invoice being signed by the president.

Final 12 months, as an illustration, a US choose blocked a Montana state ban on TikTok use after the corporate sued.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will go to Capitol Hill on Wednesday on a beforehand scheduled journey to speak to senators, a supply briefed on the matter informed the Reuters information company.