TikTok on Sunday cited free speech concerns over a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would ban the popular social media app in the U.S. unless Chinese owner ByteDance sells its stake within a year. I raised it.
The House passed the bill by a landslide vote of 360-58 on Saturday. It now moves to the Senate, where it could be voted on within days.
President Biden previously said he would sign the bill.
The move to include TikTok in a broader foreign aid package could speed up the timeline for a potential ban, after an earlier separate bill stalled in the U.S. Senate.
TikTok said in a statement: “It’s unfortunate that the House of Representatives is once again using the cover of critical foreign and humanitarian aid to block a bill that would trample on the free speech rights of 170 million Americans.” Ta.
Many U.S. lawmakers from both parties and the Biden administration say TikTok poses a national security risk because China could force the company to share data on its 170 million U.S. users. It has said. TikTok insists it has never shared U.S. data and has no intention of ever sharing it.
Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that TikTok could be used as a propaganda tool by the Chinese government.
“A lot of young people on TikTok get their news[from the app]but the idea of giving the[Chinese]Communist Party such a propaganda tool and the ability to collect the personal data of 170 million Americans? is a national security risk,” he told CBS News.
Some progressive Democrats have also expressed free speech concerns about the ban, calling instead for stronger data privacy regulations.
U.S. Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said Sunday that he feels a ban on TikTok may not survive legal scrutiny in court, citing the U.S. Constitution’s free speech protections.
“I don’t think it would pass First Amendment scrutiny,” he said in an interview with ABC News.
The House of Representatives on March 13 voted to give ByteDance about six months to sell the short video app’s U.S. assets or face a ban.
The bill passed Saturday sets a nine-month deadline, which could be extended for another three months if the president determines progress toward a sale.
TikTok was also a hot topic during Biden’s phone call with China’s Xi Jinping earlier this month. The White House said Biden raised U.S. concerns about ownership of the app.
