US House of Representatives passes bill to ban popular App Tiktok

The United States House of Representatives approved a bill on Wednesday that could potentially ban TikTok nationwide.

If this bill gets Senate approval, President Biden has promised to sign it immediately.

Although a majority vote passed the bill from representatives of both Republican and Democratic parties, it still needs Senate approval and the president’s signature to become law.

Chinese company ByteDance, the owner of this social media giant, has six months to sell its shares in TikTok to divest the company from its control. Otherwise, the app will be blocked in the United States.

TikTok requires approval from China to sell its shares, and Beijing has stated it will oppose it. US lawmakers have long been concerned about Chinese influence in TikTok.

ByteDance operates in China and is required by China’s national security law to share its data with Chinese authorities.

However, TikTok has told US lawmakers that ByteDance employees in China do not have access to the data of its 150 million users in the US because TikTok’s servers are not located in China.

Nevertheless, a Wall Street Journal investigation in January this year showed that the system is still “vulnerable”, and data is unofficially shared between TikTok in the US and ByteDance in China.

In protest against the approval of this bill in the House of Representatives, some TikTok supporters gathered outside the White House on Wednesday.

With 150 million users in the United States, TikTok stands as a beloved social media platform among the youth demographic. Just a month ago, President Biden joined TikTok in a strategic move to rally support from young voters ahead of the November elections.

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