The House of Representatives on Saturday passed what could be landmark legislation that would ban TikTok in the United States unless its parent company agrees to sell the video-sharing app to a U.S.-based company. Some have taken this development as a sign that it is “inevitable” that the bill will become the law of the land.
The proposed legislation, which has its share of proponents and detractors, is aimed at preventing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from covertly accessing the data of Americans using the app. If it becomes law, it could become a pivotal moment related to government involvement in digital communication.
The ban was tied to the vote on a $95 billion foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, and has gotten comparatively little attention.
The TikTok bill passed by a vote of 360 to 58…
Roughly 150 million Americans are on TikTok and there have been growing fears among lawmakers about what influence its Chinese Communist owners have on the company.
The app has become quite controversial over recent years. Many of its users promoted Osama Bin Laden and spread pro-Hamas propaganda on the social media platform.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) told reporters that the legislation “represents a bipartisan breakthrough against the CCP’s most powerful tool of information warfare against the United States” and vowed that Congress would not “stand by idly while the CCP freely weaponizes TikTok to corrupt the minds of young Americans, radicalize Americans against their own country, and amplify antisemitism on a scale and at a pace not seen in human history.”
Critics and supporters both present compelling arguments for and against the measures. RedState’s Ben Kew supports the ban, arguing that “Pulling back from a clamp down on Tiktok would be a major mistake” because the app “is an arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and poses a genuine threat to national security through its ability to spy and collect data on the unsuspecting.”