The US House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill that could lead to a ban on the TikTok app in the country unless its Chinese owners sell it, arguing that it poses a possible national security threat.
The bill was approved by a vote of 352 for and 65 against (15 Republican and 50 Democratic) and now goes to a vote in the Senate.
If it is approved in this chamber of the US Congress, the project will be ratified by the president, since Joe Biden has already announced that he will sign the law.
The proposal was passed unanimously Thursday — 50 votes in favor and none against — by the House Energy and Commerce Committee and, if approved by both chambers and the president, ByteDance would have 180 days to sell the application (app). .
TikTok, which has more than 150 million users in the US, is owned by ByteDance, a company that US lawmakers say is controlled by the Chinese government. This way, they argue, the Chinese government can have access to TikTok consumer data in the US whenever it wants, jeopardizing national security.
“We gave TikTok a clear choice,” Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said, as quoted by the Associated Press news agency.
“Either it will split from its parent company ByteDance, which is controlled by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) and can continue to operate in the United States, or it will remain on the side of the CCP and face the consequences.
“The choice is TikTok,” he explained. But the opinion is not unanimous. “The answer to authoritarianism cannot be more authoritarianism,” said Republican Representative Tom McClintock.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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