The US Congress Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously (50 votes to 0) supported a bill that would require the Chinese company ByteDance to either get rid of the TikTok app or face a ban in the US. The House of Representatives is to consider the draft “Protecting Americans from Apps Controlled by Foreign Adversaries Act” next week.
TikTok has about 170 million users in the United States. In 2020, President Donald Trump tried in vain to ban the app. Prior to the committee vote, lawmakers received a closed-door, classified briefing on the national security implications of TikTok with its Chinese owner.
ByteDance does not seem to be planning to sell TikTok:
«This law has a predetermined outcome: a complete ban on TikTok in the United States. The government is trying to deprive 170 million Americans of their constitutional right to free expression. This will hurt millions of businesses, deny artists access to audiences, and destroy the livelihoods of countless creators across the country,» the company said after the vote.
Republican congressman Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Committee on China, believes that it would be advisable to sell TikTok.
«TikTok could continue to live, and people could do whatever they want in it, provided that it is separated. It’s not a ban — think of it as an operation to remove a tumor and save a patient».
U.S. President Joe Biden is going to sign the law if it is supported by Congress.
«As soon as … it can get out of Congress, then the president will sign it. But we need to keep working on it,» said White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre.
Congressmen of both parties have spoken out in the American press about the bill and are inclined to support it, and Donald Trump has also spoken in favor of it: «If you get rid of TikTok, Facebook and Zuckerschmuck will double their business». He also called the Chinese service «the real enemy of the people».