A Bill that might Outlaw Tiktok is Unanimously Approved by a House Panel
Situasi ID – A strong House committee moved forward with a bill on Thursday that might result in a nationwide ban on TikTok on all electronic devices, reinvigorating lawmakers’ opposition to one of the most widely used social media apps worldwide and bringing to light unaddressed concerns that TikTok could be a potential spying tool for the Chinese government.
A bill that was unanimously approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee would ban TikTok from being available in US app stores unless the 170 million or more users of the social media network swiftly separate from its parent business, ByteDance, which is connected to China.
Should the bill become law, ByteDance would have 165 days—just over five months—to sell TikTok. It would be against the law for the owners of app stores, like Apple and Google, to allow downloads if they weren’t divested before then. Similar restrictions are also planned for other apps that are “controlled by foreign adversary companies” according to the bill.
The proposal that targets TikTok is the most aggressive to come out of a congressional committee since the CEO of the firm, Shou Chew, told legislators last year that the app is safe for Americans to use.
The panel’s chair, Republican representative from Washington, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, said, “Today, we will take the first step in creating long-overdue laws to protect Americans from the threat posed by apps controlled by our adversaries, and to send a very strong message that the US will always stand up for our values and freedom.”
Introduction
The leading Democrat on the committee, Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, used evidence from national security experts from a closed-door hearing earlier on Thursday to connect the plan to similar attempts to control US airwaves.
Pallone declared, “I take the concerns expressed by the intelligence community this morning very seriously.” “I think this bill will do that. They have asked Congress to give them more authority to act in these specific situations.”
