A TikTok ban is again on the desk after the Home accredited a brand new invoice on Saturday addressing the problems that stalled it out within the Senate.
The invoice would permit the Biden administration to ban TikTok nationwide if it doesn’t divest from its China-based proprietor, Bytedance, inside a yr. It’s completely different from the same invoice handed within the Home final month and offers TikTok an extra six months to discover a US purchaser. The earlier invoice stalled out within the Senate after Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell raised a number of points, together with the brief timeline for divestiture.
It handed simply, in a 360-58 vote.
“This app is a spy balloon on Individuals’ telephones,” stated consultant Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, in his introduction of the invoice on the Home flooring Saturday. “It’s a modern-day Computer virus … used to surveil and exploit America’s private info.”
The TikTok backlash had bipartisan help. “Nationwide safety consultants are sounding the alarm, warning that our overseas adversaries are utilizing each instrument at their disposal, together with apps like TikTok, to amass troves of delicate knowledge on all Individuals,” stated consultant Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat. “This invoice takes decisive motion to mitigate our adversaries’ capability to gather Individuals’ knowledge and use it in opposition to us.”
Digital liberties teams have pushed again in opposition to a TikTok ban over First Modification issues, and since they consider that eliminating TikTok fails to deal with the underlying problem of pervasive knowledge assortment. “The one answer to this pervasive ecosystem is prohibiting the gathering of our knowledge within the first place,” wrote the Digital Frontier Basis, a nonprofit digital rights group, in a publish final month. “Finally, overseas adversaries will nonetheless have the ability to receive our knowledge from social media corporations except these corporations are forbidden from gathering, retaining, and promoting it, full cease.”
Even X proprietor Elon Musk spoke out in opposition to the ban. “In my view, TikTok shouldn’t be banned within the USA, although such a ban might profit the X platform,” he posted Friday on X. “Doing so can be opposite to freedom of speech and expression. It isn’t what America stands for.”
Regardless, divestment or a ban now appears nearly sure. This new measure had been tacked on to a multi-billion greenback overseas support bundle directed at Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. After Iran’s retaliatory assault in opposition to Israel final week, this support has been fast-tracked, which might make it tougher for the Senate to keep away from passing it.
Cantwell has endorsed this newest bundle, saying in a Wednesday assertion, “I’m very comfortable that Speaker Johnson and Home leaders integrated my advice to increase the Byte Dance divestment interval from six months to a yr. As I’ve stated, extending the divestment interval is critical to make sure there may be sufficient time for a brand new purchaser to get a deal performed. I help this up to date laws.”
For a number of years, Congress has tried and didn’t pressure a TikTok sale. Republicans and Democrats have feared that the app poses a danger to US nationwide safety, offering the Chinese language authorities troves of American consumer knowledge. However Congress has supplied little proof to help these claims, and TikTok and its supporters argue that banning the app would violate freedom of speech rights.
