Global News Desk:
On Wednesday, the US House of
Representatives decisively passed a bill mandating TikTok to sever connections
with its Chinese parent company or face prohibition within the United States.
The legislation is a major
setback for the video-sharing app, which has surged in popularity across the
world while causing nervousness about its Chinese ownership and its potential
subservience to the Communist Party in Beijing.
The lawmakers voted 352 in favor
of the proposed law and 65 against, in a rare moment of unity in politically
divided Washington. The warning shot against the app caught many by surprise as
both Republicans and Democrats risked the wrath of TikTok's passionate young
users in an election year when the youth vote will be key.
"Today's bipartisan vote
demonstrates Congress' opposition to Communist China's attempts to spy on and
manipulate Americans, and signals our resolve to deter our enemies,"
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said after the vote.
"I urge the Senate to pass
this bill and send it to the President so he can sign it into law." But
the fate of the bill is uncertain in the more cautious Senate, where some are
apprehensive about making a drastic move against an app that has 170 million US
users.
President Joe Biden will sign the
bill, known officially as the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary
Controlled Applications Act, into law if it comes to his desk, the White House
has said.
'Make your voices heard'
"This process was secret and
the bill was jammed through for one reason: it's a ban," said a spokesperson
for TikTok in a statement. "We are hopeful that the Senate will consider
the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy,
7 million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our
service."
After the vote, TikTok CEO Shou
Zi Chew urged the app's users in the United States to speak out and share their
stories, including with their senators.
"We will continue to do all
we can including exercising our legal rights to protect this amazing platform
that we have built with you," he said in a video posted on social media
platform X. "We believe we can overcome this together... Protect your
constitutional rights. Make your voices heard."
Majority leader Chuck Schumer,
who will need to back the bill, remained non-comital, saying only that the
Senate "will review" the legislation when it comes over from the
House.
The measure, which only gained
momentum in the past few days, requires TikTok's parent company ByteDance to
sell the app within 180 days or see it barred from the Apple and Google app
stores in the United States.
It also gives the president power
to designate other applications to be a national security threat if they are
under the control of a country considered adversarial to the United States. The
renewed campaign against TikTok came out of the blue to the company, the Wall
Street Journal reported, with TikTok executives reassured when Biden joined the
app last month as part of his campaign for a second term.
Chew is in Washington, trying to
stop progress on the bill.
The Trump factor
China warned on Wednesday that
the move will "inevitably come back to bite the United States." "Although
the United States has never found evidence that TikTok threatens US national
security, it has not stopped suppressing TikTok," foreign ministry
spokesperson Wang Wenbin said, condemning it as "bullying behavior."
Republican lawmakers approved the
bill, in an unusual act of defiance against Donald Trump. In a turnaround from
his earlier stance, Trump on Monday said he was against a ban, mainly because
it would strengthen Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook, which he called
an "enemy of the people."
When Trump was president, he
attempted to wrest control of TikTok from ByteDance, but was blocked by US
courts.
"I think it will die in the
Senate," said Representative Nancy Mace, a Trump ally. "This is not
our job to do this." Other efforts to ban TikTok have failed, with a bill
proposed a year ago getting nowhere largely over free speech concerns.
Similarly, a state law passed in
Montana banning the platform was suspended by a federal court on the suspicion
that it violated constitutional free speech rights.
TikTok staunchly denies any ties
to the Chinese government and has restructured the company so the data of US
users stays in the country with independent oversight, the company says.