On Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved the "Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act", which requires TikTok to sever ties with its parent company in China or be banned in the United States.
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Once approved with 352 votes in favor and 65 against, this bill must be reviewed by the Senate and then ratified by President Joe Biden, who has said he would sign the bill.
House Speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, urged the Senate in a statement to pass the bill so Biden can sign it into law. However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not indicated yet whether he will allow the Upper Chamber to proceed with a floor vote.
On March 7, the proposal was unanimously ratified by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. If the bill is finally approved by both chambers and the government, ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, would have 180 days to sell the application in the U.S.
Currently, TikTok has 170 million users in the U.S. The bill to sever ties between it and China was introduced by Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party.
They argue that TikTok poses a serious threat to U.S. national security as long as it is owned by ByteDance, a company that Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi consider to be ultimately controlled by the Communist Party.
During his term (2017-2021), former President Donald Trump also attempted to ban TikTok, citing the platform as a threat due to its ability to collect user data.
As a result of such attempt, ByteDance held negotiations with Microsoft to sell part of the company. Currently, however, Trump opposes the TikTok ban.