The House Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States intends to vote on a bill to forbid its use next month, as announced on Friday. The bill would give the White House the legal authority to ban TikTok (The Chinese social media app) in the United States due to national security concerns.
The famous short video app TikTok may face a nationwide ban in the United States next month
The bill would grant the White House the legal authority to forbid TikTok due to concerns about national security, according to the proposal made by the panel's chair, Representative Michael McCaul.
When the timing of the vote was first announced, McCaul was quoted by Bloomberg News as saying that the concern is that the Chinese government gets a back door into their phones.
Donald Trump, president at the time, tried to ban transactions that would have effectively stopped the use of the short video-sharing app in the nation in 2020 and prevent new users from downloading TikTok. Still, he lost several court cases over the proposal.
In June 2021, the Biden administration formally abandoned that project. Later, in December, Republican Senator Marco Rubio introduced legislation that would outlaw TikTok and halt all business relations with social media companies with Chinese or Russian roots or under their control.
The US Congress could enact a ban this year. McCaul's remarks pressure President Joe Biden's administration to compel ByteDance, the app's Chinese parent company, to sell its US operations.
Some of the current proposals, according to McCaul, run the risk of being legally quashed due to free speech concerns. In addition, the Texas Republican expressed doubt that any proposed firewall would adequately protect US users from the enormously popular short video platform and its Chinese parent.
He claimed that the committee is currently working on a new bill combining several TikTok ban proposals and addressing constitutional concerns.
The bipartisan bill from Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher and Illinois Democrat Raja Krishnamoorthi, as well as other measures to outlaw TikTok in the US, are being considered in the House and Senate at the same time as McCaul's.
Colorado Representative Ken Buck and Missouri Senator Josh Hawley introduced the ban this week. Hawley stated in an interview that a sale of the app to an American buyer would ease his concerns, and he urged a committee looking into the national security risks of TikTok to complete its work as soon as possible.
According to the proposal made by the panel's chair, Representative Michael McCaul, the bill would give the White House the legal authority to prohibit TikTok due to national security concerns.
The app's potential to provide the Chinese government with a backdoor into our phones raises suspicions. Bloomberg News quoted McCaul as saying when the timing of the vote was first made public.
Over half of US states have enacted comparable restrictions, and the US Congress recently outlawed TikTok from government smartphones. Furthermore, the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has investigated the platform's risks (CFIUS).
Afterward, the House floor would be where McCaul's bill would be discussed if it were to pass. But passing a ban on the teenager-favorite app TikTok would take a lot of work in Congress and require 60 votes in the Senate.
TikTok, which has over 100 million US users, has been attempting for three years to reassure Washington that the personal information of American citizens cannot be accessed or changed by the Chinese Communist Party or anyone else under Beijing's control.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the spokesperson for the White House, refrained from commenting on the TikTok bill on Friday. She declined to go into further detail because (CFIUS) was still reviewing it.
A law that forbade federal employees from using or downloading TikTok on equipment owned by the government was signed by Biden in December. TikTok usage on state-owned devices is prohibited in more than 25 US states.
In the meantime, according to people familiar with the situation, ByteDance general counsel Erich Andersen is no longer head of TikTok's US government relations as part of a restructuring to improve the company's position amid intense national security scrutiny.
However, according to one of the people, he will continue to oversee the work with CFIUS. In addition, to prevent the US government from outlawing the app, TikTok has been in touch with US officials responsible for handling national security matters.
