A historic bill approved by the US House of Representatives may result in the US government outlawing TikTok.
Despite receiving a bipartisan majority vote, the bill still needs to pass the Senate and be signed into law by the president.
The app would be restricted in the US if the social media behemoth’s Chinese parent firm, ByteDance, didn’t sell its majority share within six months. ByteDance was launched in 2012.
Lawmakers are worried about China’s sway over TikTok for a long time.
The Cayman Islands-registered Beijing-based company maintains offices throughout Europe and the United States.
President Joe Biden has pledged to sign the law as soon as it reaches his desk, which might lead to a diplomatic crisis with China if it manages to pass the Senate.
Beijing has made it clear that it will oppose ByteDance’s forced divestiture, which would require permission from Chinese authorities to be completed. Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for the foreign ministry, said that the action will “come back to bite the US”.
Co-author of the bill and Republican from Wisconsin, Mike Gallagher, stated that the US could not “take the risk of having a dominant news platform in America controlled or owned by a company that is beholden to the Chinese Communist Party”.
Chinese businesses are obliged to share data with the government on request under a national security law
