US House passes bill that would ban TikTok amid national security concerns | Technology News

The US Residence of Representatives has overwhelmingly handed a bill that may eventually ban the social media platform TikTok throughout the nation, in its latest salvo in the direction of every China and big tech.

The bill acquired resoundingly bipartisan assist, with vote of 352 to 65 in favour. It now heads to the 100-member Senate, the place its prospects are a lot much less clear. For his half, President Joe Biden has said he would sign the bill into laws if it reached his desk.

If that occurred, TikTok’s Chinese language language proprietor ByteDance may be given about six months to divest from its US property or see its video-sharing app banned throughout the US.

The legal guidelines stems from issues that ByteDance is beholden to the Chinese language language authorities. Authorities officers have expressed fears that the data TikTok collects from its roughly 170 million American clients might pose a nationwide security menace.

Newest nationwide security laws handed in China, which could compel organisations to assist with intelligence gathering, have further buoyed these issues.

Bytedance, nonetheless, has repeatedly maintained it operates independently of the Chinese language language authorities.

Speaking on Wednesday, US Advisor Cathy McMorris Rodgers said the legal guidelines has “given TikTok a clear choice”.

“Separate out of your dad or mum agency ByteDance, which is beholden to the CCP [the Chinese Communist Party], and keep operational within the US, or facet with the CCP and face the implications,” she said. “The choice is TikTok’s.”

Opponents of Wednesday’s bill cited issues about freedom of speech and often called the switch a knee-jerk effort that falls in want of great reform.

“Reasonably than objective one agency in a rushed and secretive course of, Congress ought to maneuver full data privateness protections and do a higher job of informing most of the people of the threats these companies may pose to nationwide security,” Advisor Barbara Lee, a progressive stalwart, posted on the social media platform X.

TikTok decries ‘ban’

Prematurely of the Residence vote, a excessive nationwide security official throughout the Biden administration held a closed-door briefing with legislators to debate TikTok and its nationwide security implications.

Within the meantime, every Republican and Democratic legislators reported a flood of calls from TikTok clients in opposition to the legal guidelines.

Voted NO on the TikTok bill.

Not solely are there 1st modification issues, that’s harmful protection.

We should always all the time create exact necessities & legal guidelines spherical privateness violations all through social media companies—not objective platforms we don’t like.

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 13, 2024

Various TikTok supporters, along with excellent content material materials creators on the platform, gathered in entrance of the US Capitol on Wednesday upfront of the vote. The company moreover issued an announcement opposing the vote.

“This course of was secret, and the bill was jammed by the use of for one trigger: It’s a ban,” TikTok spokesperson Alex Haurek said in an announcement.

“We’re hopeful that the Senate will take into consideration the main points, take heed to their constituents, and realise the have an effect on on the monetary system, seven million small corporations and the 170 million Individuals who use our service.”

Will TikTok be unavailable throughout the US?

Tiktok’s future throughout the Senate stays not sure. Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, has said he’ll search the recommendation of with associated committee chairs to search out out the bill’s path.

For his or her half, Democratic and Republican leaders of the US Senate Intelligence Committee said that they had been impressed by the bill’s passage throughout the Residence.

“[We] stay up for working collectively to get this bill handed by the use of the Senate and signed into laws,” Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio said in an announcement.

TikTok is about to remain obtainable throughout the US for the foreseeable future.

If the bill had been to be handed into laws, ByteDance would have six months to divest sooner than a ban may be imposed. A sale in that time frame is possible, nonetheless the timeline may be tight for such a giant acquisition.

Failure to regulate to the deadline would indicate that US-based app outlets couldn’t legally provide TikTok or current web-hosting corporations for ByteDance-controlled features.

Nonetheless any pressured divestment would just about really face extended licensed challenges. ByteDance would wish to file an enchantment inside 165 days of the bill being signed by the president.

Last 12 months, as an illustration, a US select blocked a Montana state ban on TikTok use after the company sued.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will go to Capitol Hill on Wednesday on a beforehand scheduled journey to talk to senators, a provide briefed on the matter knowledgeable the Reuters data firm.